/OS  0 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT 
IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT 
IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


BY 
ALBERT  SHAW 


NEW  YORK 
THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1895 


Copyright,  1895,  by  THE  CENTURY  Co. 


THE  DE  VINNE  PRESS. 


TS 


PREFACE 


ANY  account  of  living  institutions,  whether  chiefly 
•£\.  critical  and  comparative,  or  chiefly  descriptive 
and  statistical,  has  always  to  contend  with  the  diffi- 
culty that  life  means  growth  and  change,  and  that 
everything  is  in  motion.  This  difficulty,  quite  for- 
midable enough  as  regards  the  United  States  and 
its  social  and  political  organisms,  is  perhaps  even 
greater  in  Europe,  where  innovation  and  change  have 
in  recent  years  been  more  marked  and  bold  than  in 
America.  When,  however,  as  in  the  present  volume 
and  its  successor,  the  discussion  is  limited  to  those 
particular  forms  of  organization  that  we  may  agree 
to  call  City  Government, — although  the  word  "gov- 
ernment "  would  seem  ill  adapted  to  embrace  at  once 
the  mechanism  and  the  varied  tasks  of  modern  mu- 
nicipal corporations, — Europe  affords  a  simpler  and 
more  satisfactory  field  of  inquiry  than  the  United 
States.  And  the  reason  may  be  given  in  a  word. 
In  no  European  country  are  the  principles,  pur- 
poses, or  essential  mechanisms  of  municipal  govern- 
ment under  serious  discussion.  Each  country  has 


vi    MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

worked  out  for  itself,  or  borrowed  from  a  neigh- 
boring country,  a  practicable  system  of  municipal  or- 
ganization; and  the  system  is  strong  enough  and 
elastic  enough  to  endure  the  double  test  of  a  mar- 
velous new  growth  of  city  population  and  a  fast 
increasing  list  of  administrative  undertakings. 

If  one  should  attempt  to  describe  exhaustively 
the  current  activities  of  European  city  governments, 
his  narrations  and  his  statistics  might  have  grown 
obsolescent  before  they  could  be  printed,  so  rapid 
is  the  expansion  of  municipal  life.  But,  fortunately, 
the  structure  of  European  municipal  government 
possesses  principles  of  a  permanent  nature.  With 
all  the  differences  of  detail  that  the  American  in- 
quirer may  find  in  different  countries,  he  discovers 
that  in  the  whole  range  of  municipal  institutions, 
from  Great  Britain  to  Southeastern  Europe,  there 
are  not  nearly  so  many  important  variations,  either 
of  principle  or  of  method,  as  in  the  United  States 
alone.  The  primary  difficulty  in  the  way  of  a  gen- 
eral study  of  American  municipal  government  lies 
in  the  lack  of  any  logical  system,  or  of  any  guid- 
ing principles,  and  in  the  capricious  and  arbitrary 
nature  of  the  legislative  changes  that  one  State 
or  another  is  constantly  making.  I  am  strongly 
impressed  with  the  belief  that  municipal  reform 
proceeds  haltingly  in  the  United  States  because, 
for  one  reason,  many  citizens  who  desire  sincerely 
to  aid  in  the  regeneration  of  their  town  life  and 
neighborhood  affairs  have  formed  no  definite  mu- 
nicipal ideals.  They  have  neither  learned  what 


PREFACE  vii 

in  the  experience  of  the  world  has  come  to  be  re- 
garded as  a  sound  constitution  or  framework  of 
municipal  government,  nor  have  they  made  up 
their  minds  to  what  positive  tasks  and  public  ser- 
vices a  municipal  government  may  wisely  apply 
itself.  I  have  no  intention  to  prescribe  European 
remedies  for  American  maladies,  nor  to  suggest 
any  degree  whatsoever  of  imitation.  We  must  deal 
with  our  own  problems  in  our  own  way.  But  we 
must  be  willing  to  gain  all  possible  enlighten- 
ment from  the  experience  of  others  who  have  been 
dealing  with  kindred  problems  and  have  found 
solutions  that  are  satisfactory  under  their  own  cir- 
cumstances. 

In  the  present  volume  I  have  sought  to  give  such 
an  account  of  the  working  of  municipal  institu- 
tions in  Great  Britain  as  would  supply  the  infor- 
mation that  American  readers  might  find  most 
suggestive  and  useful  for  their  purposes.  A  second 
volume  will  treat,  somewhat  similarly,  of  municipal 
government  in  the  chief  countries  of  Continental 
Europe.  The  British  system  and  its  developments, 
particularly  in  the  great  manufacturing  and  com- 
mercial towns,  would  seem  to  be  worthy  of  the 
practical  attention  of  our  ambitious  American  cities 
of  corresponding  rank  as  regards  population  and 
commercial  importance. 

The  chapters  upon  Glasgow  and  London  have 
made  free  use  of  my  articles  upon  the  governments 
of  those  cities  that  have  appeared  in  "  The  Century 
Magazine";  and  the  chapter  upon  the  practical 


viii  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

working  of  the  British  system  has  in  like  manner 
drawn  upon  an  article  contributed  to  the  "  Political 
Science  Quarterly"  several  years  ago.  But  the 
book  is  in  no  sense  a  reprint  of  such  studies,  and 
it  is  designed  to  present  a  fairly  symmetrical  account 
of  the  British  municipal  system,  its  methods  and  its 
results,  as  in  operation  in  the  present  year. 

New  York,  January,  1895. 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  INTRODUCTORY:  THE  GROWTH  AND  PROBLEMS 

OP  MODERN  CITIES 1 

II.  THE  RISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS,  THE  REFORM 

ACTS,  AND  THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE 20 

III.  THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION 38 

IV.  A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 69 

V.  MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES 145 

VI.  BIRMINGHAM  :  ITS  Civic  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION  .  168 

VII.  SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 194 

VIII.  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON 222 

IX.  METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 263 

APPENDICES 

I.  THE  ENGLISH  MUNICIPAL  CODE 325 

II.  THE  LONDON  (PROGRESSIVE)  PLATFORM  . . .  349 

III.  THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON 354 

INDEX .  377 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT 
IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT 
IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTORY:    THE  GROWTH  AND 
PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES 


nineteenth  century  is  closing  upon  a  race  that 
is  destined,  for  the  great  majority,  to  live  in  cities, 
or  under  conditions  more  or  less  strictly  urban.  This  preponder- 
fact  has  only  recently  forced  its  way  into  the  general  cities. 
consciousness.  Circumstances  of  an  obvious  kind 
compelled  its  recognition  in  England  and  western 
Europe  somewhat  sooner  than  in  America;  and  sterner 
necessities  led  to  a  speedier  and  more  complete  adop- 
tion of  means  to  lessen  the  disadvantages  and  dangers, 
and  to  secure  the  possible  benefits,  of  the  massing  of 
population  in  large  towns.  For  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury the  cities  of  the  United  States  have  taken  an  un- 
disguised pride  in  their  buoyant  growth.  Most  of 
them  have  eagerly  welcomed  the  evidence  of  large 
yearly  or  decennial  additions  to  their  numbers.  But 
at  length  they  are  discovering  that  the  city  element  be- 
gins to  preponderate  in  a  country  whose  whole  fabric 
of  civilization  had  been  wrought  upon  a  foundation  of 

agriculture  and  rural  life ;  and  that  the  future  safety 
i.-i  i 


2  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  of  our  institutions  requires  that  we  learn  how  to  adapt 
city  life  to  the  promotion  of  the  general  welfare.  The 
manner  in  which  the  principal  nations  of  Europe  have 
of  late  dealt  with  these  new  problems  of  community 
life,  under  conditions  of  dense  inhabitancy,  is  highly 
value  of  instructive.  The  problems  to  be  solved  are  so  similar 

experience,  in  all  their  essential  characteristics,  regardless  of  na- 
tional distinctions,  that  they  afford  an  important  field 
of  comparative  study  both  descriptive  and  critical.  An 
inquiry  into  the  experiences  and  the  present  status  of 
the  great  municipalities  of  several  other  countries  can 
but  result  in  a  clearer  perception  of  the  nature  of  the 
practical  problems  of  municipal  government  that  con- 
front our  American  cities  —  while  also  aiding,  through 
the  processes  of  comparison  and  induction,  to  establish 
certain  fundamental  principles  and  methods  that  must 
have  place  in  the  wise  and  permanent  ordering  of  the 
affairs  of  any  modern  industrial  community,  in  what- 
ever portion  of  the  world. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  present  volume  and  its 
successor  to  perform  this  service  of  a  comparative  ac- 
count of  municipal  administrations  —  their  methods 
and  their  results  —  in  the  chief  capitals  and  the  typi- 
cal industrial  and  commercial  towns  of  Europe.  The 
chief  aim  is  to  present  significant  facts  in  the  spirit  of 

'ent  volume,  impartial  interpretation ;  and  there  has  been  no  desire 
to  construct  an  argument  or  to  defend  a  thesis.  Never- 
theless, certain  fundamental  views  have  undoubtedly 
exercised  so  strong  an  influence  upon  the  mode  of  in- 
quiry pursued,  that  a  preliminary  statement  or  two 
may  be  permitted  as  furnishing  the  key  to  all  that  fol- 
lows. Since  life  in  cities,  under  new  and  artificial 
conditions,  is  henceforth  the  providential  lot  assigned 
to  the  majority  of  families,  it  is  to  be  accepted  as  a 
permanent  fact  for  this  generation  and  its  immediate 
successors :  and  the  inevitable  order  is  not  to  be  re. 


GROWTH  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES  3 

belled  against  as  an  evil,  but  welcomed  as  if  it  were     CHAP.  i. 

the  most  desirable  of  destinies.    For  the  present  evils 

of  city  life  are  temporary  and  remediable.    The  aboli-  Evils  of  city 

life  remedi- 

tion  of  the  slums,  and  the  destruction  of  their  virus,  able. 
are  as  feasible  as  the  drainage  of  a  swamp  and  the 
total  dissipation  of  its  miasmas.  The  conditions  and 
circumstances  that  surround  the  lives  of  the  masses 
of  people  in  modern  cities  can  be  so  adjusted  to  their 
needs  as  to  result  in  the  highest  development  of  the 
race,  in  body,  in  mind,  and  in  moral  character.  The 
so-called  problems  of  the  modern  city  are  but  the  vari- 
ous phases  of  the  one  main  question,  How  can  the 
environment  be  most  perfectly  adapted  to  the  welfare 
of  urban  populations'?  And  science  can  meet  and 
answer  every  one  of  these  problems.  The  science  of 
the  modern  city  —  of  the  ordering  of  common  con- 
cerns in  dense  population-groups  —  draws  upon  many 
branches  of  theoretical  and  practical  knowledge.  It 
includes  administrative  science,  statistical  science,  en- 
gineering and  technological  science,  sanitary  science,  A  science  of 
,  ,  , .  i  •  i  -,  i  .  T/.  the  modern 

and  educational,  social,  and  moral  science.    It  one       city. 

uses  the  term  City  Government  in  the  large  sense  that 
makes  it  inclusive  of  this  entire  ordering  of  the  general 
affairs  and  interests  of  the  community,  and  further,  if 
one  grasps  the  idea  that  the  cheerful  and  rational  ac- 
ceptance of  urban  life  as  a  great  social  fact  demands 
that  the  City  Government  should  proceed  to  make  such 
urban  life  conduce  positively  to  the  welfare  of  all  the 
people  whose  lawful  interests  bring  them  together  as 
denizens  of  great  towns,  he  will  understand  the  point 
of  view  from  which  this  book  has  been  written. 

It  is  not,  as  has  been  said,  with  the  purpose  of  main- 
taining a  thesis,  or  of  provoking  controversy,  that 
these  preliminary  propositions  have  been  laid  down. 
They  would  seem  to  rest  so  palpably  at  the  bottom  of 
all  that  is  encouraging  and  inspiring  in  the  recent 


4  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  progress  of  municipal  life  in  Europe,  that  a  discussion 
from  any  more  restricted  point  of  view  would  be  well 
nigh  useless.  It  would  fail  to  perceive  clearly  and  to 
grasp  solidly  the  dominating  principle.  I  may  be  par- 
doned, then,  if  I  venture  to  elaborate  somewhat  further 
these  introductory  considerations.  For  it  is  of  conse- 
quence that  the  distinctive  nature  of  the  modern  city 
should  be  comprehended,  and  that  the  logic  of  its 
origin  should  be  made  to  throw  some  light  upon  the 
problem  of  its  destiny. 

All  the  important  economic  and  social  problems 
of  the  age  have  presented  themselves  in  a  perfectly 
rational  and  predicable  manner.  Some  time  ago, — 
not  to  look  too  closely  at  dates,  let  us  say  a  century 
ago, — following  the  French  and  American  Revolu- 
tions, there  began  an  era  of  the  most  extraordinary 
The  era  of  progress.  The  economist  views  it  as  an  era  of  iudus- 
ismm  trialism.  The  perfection  of  the  steam-engine,  the 
rapid  invention  of  machinery  and  its  adoption  in 
manufactures,  the  building  of  railroads — all  these  in- 
novations enormously  increased  production.  The  ac- 
cumulation of  capital  and  the  world's  progress  in 
opulence  were  now  at  a  rate  many  times  more  rapid 
than  had  ever  been  known  before.  Political  economy 
became  the  science  of  this  new  era  of  capital  and  pro- 
duction; and  the  idols  of  this  science,  naturally  and 
properly  enough  for  the  time  being,  were  production 
and  capital.  Human  society  does  not  advance  in 
symmetrical  fashion,  but  rather  by  tangents  and  zig- 
zag lines.  It  was  inevitable  that  economic  production 
and  the  development  of  capital,  under  the  new  indus- 
trial forces,  should  be  the  dominant  ideas  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  until  its  last  decades.  But  it  was 
equally  natural  and  necessary  that  the  social  problems 
which  grew  out  of  the  new  facts  and  conditions  of 
wealth-production  should,  in  the  fullness  of  time, 


GROWTH  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES  5 

have  forced  themselves  to  a  front  place  and  won  uni-     CHAP.  i. 
versal  attention.     Those  who  have  observed  the  eco- 
nomic writing  and  discussion  of  the  last  quarter  of 
the  century  cannot  have  failed  to  note  how  almost 
exclusively  men  are  wrestling  with  the  problems  of 
wealth-distribution.    The  social  and  ethical  aspects  of    Emergence 
industrialism  are  now  prominent.    Having  to  so  great    questions. 
an  extent  conquered  the  forces  of  nature  and  made 
them  vastly  productive  of  material  goods,  men  are 
raising  the  question  in  its  logical  order  how  this  good 
fortune  can  be  made  most  conducive  to  the  welfare  of 
all  members  and  classes  of  the  social  body. 

But  these  resistless  forces  of  modern  life  have  not 
merely  resolved  society  into  distinct  elements  as  re- 
gards production,  thereby  creating  all  the  hard  prob- 
lems that  we  discuss  under  such  heads  as  capital  and 
labor,  profits  and  wages;  but  they  have  had  other 
and  revolutionary  effects  upon  the  grouping  of  popu-  ing  of  popu- 
lation-masses. They  have  in  the  first  place  prodi-  masses, 
giously  stimulated  the  growth  of  population.  In  the 
second  place  they  have  concentrated  all  this  increase 
of  population  in  large  towns.  Under  old  conditions, 
country  life  was  the  rule  and  town  life  the  exception. 
But  under  the  new  conditions,  urban  life  becomes  the 
necessary  lot  of  an  ever-increasing  proportion  —  a 
proportion  that  in  several  countries  has  now  reached 
preponderant  dimensions,  while  in  all  civilized  lands 
a  like  result  is  only  a  matter  of  a  few  years.  The 
same  general  causes  are  in  operation  everywhere, 
with  similar  consequences.  The  hundred  grave  and 
distinctive  problems  that  the  new  era  of  town  life 
brings  with  it  are  of  universal,  simultaneous  moment. 
The  essential  questions  pertaining  to  administration, 
and  to  social  and  economic  arrangements,  affect  all 
the  cities  of  the  civilized  world.  "We  are  accustomed 

to  think  and  speak  of  the  rapid  evolution  of  American 
i.— i* 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  cities  as  incidental  to  the  growth  of  a  new  country, 
and  to  overlook  the  significant  fact  that  the  European 
cities  are  growing  nearly  or  quite  as  fast  as  our  own, 
in  spite  of  the  tide  of  emigration  that  is  always  ebbing 
from  European  shores.  The  great  towns  have  sprung 
UP  w^h  magical  rapidity  everywhere,  but  not  with 


of  the  great   magical  order  and  completeness.    Nobody  had  wisely 

industrial  *  J 

town.  anticipated  their  development,  and  they  came  into 
being  as  great  hives  of  industry,  sufficiently  organized 
for  temporary  purposes  of  industrial  production,  but 
ill-organized,  even  chaotic,  as  regards  comfort,  health, 
and  the  various  amenities  of  civilized  life.  New  organs 
of  administration  had  to  be  devised.  Common  regu- 
lations, and  centralized  services  of  several  kinds,  be- 
came necessary.  How  to  minimize  the  evils  and,  at 
length,  how  to  maximize  the  advantages  of  urban  life 
were  questions  that  took  practical  form  under  many 
successive  emergencies  and  incentives.  And  thus,  in 
the  working  out  of  a  series  of  complex  problems, 
having  their  economic  and  financial,  their  political 
and  administrative,  their  sociological  and  ethical,  and 
their  technical  and  engineering  aspects,  there  has 
been  evolved  a  knowledge  which,  as  I  think,  might 
The  new  art  now  be  systematized  as  the  science  and  art  of  modern 

of  city  ., 

government,  city  government. 

It  is  evident  that  we  are  entering  upon  a  period  of 
notable  transformations.  The  social  life  of  the  world 
is  adapting  itself  to  the  new  conditions.  Yet  it  does 
not  follow  that  new  principles  need  be  invoked.  Only 
let  it  be  remembered  that  old  principles  if  retained 
must  have  novel  applications.  Thus,  superficially  re- 

coiiectivism.  garded,  the  activities  of  the  modern  city  would  seem 
to  have  a  strong  and  rapid  socialistic  trend,  because 
so  many  subjects  of  common  interest  are  passing 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  municipal  authorities. 
But  in  point  of  fact,  when  strictly  analyzed,  modern 


GROWTH  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES  7 

municipal  collectivism  does  not  so  very  seriously  trans-  CHAP.  i. 
gress  the  valuable  old  principles  of  individual  free- 
dom and  private  initiative,  and  the  household  basis  of 
economic  and  social  life.  To  speak  in  a  popular  and 
unscientific  way,  the  word  socialism,  as  relating  to  the 
increasingly  complex  functions  of  the  large  modern 
town,  might  be  defined  to  mean  the  sum  total  of  all 
those  governmental  activities  which  have  been  super- 
imposed upon  the  negative  or  strictly  necessary  func- 
tions. But  in  practice  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  clas- 
sify public  functions  and  activities  upon  any  logical 
scheme  which  proposes  to  set  individualism  over  against 
socialism.  The  former  "  ism  "  holds  it  to  be  the  duty 
of  government  to  secure  to  the  individual  the  largest 
liberty  and  immunity  compatible  with  the  reasonable 
liberty  and  immunity  of  other  individuals.  The  means,  pw  doc- 
however,  by  which  this  protection  is  to  be  made  effi-  applications. 
cient  cannot  be  the  same  in  the  simple  agricultural 
community  and  in  the  great  and  densely  peopled  city. 
The  most  extreme  advocate  of  the  doctrine  of  individ- 
ualism, if  we  except  the  anarchist,  has  always  stoutly 
upheld  the  police  authority  of  the  State  or  commu- 
nity, as  necessary  to  safeguard  the  individual  in  the 
exercise  of  his  freedom.  Organized  society  must  main- 
tain an  environment  of  order.  In  the  jostling  throngs 
of  the  city,  a  careless  or  vicious  member  of  society  has 
a  hundredfold  more  opportunities  to  disturb  the  com- 
fort and  endanger  the  health  and  well-being  of  his 
fellows  than  in  the  country.  How  many  of  the  new 
activities  of  municipal  government  —  the  activities 
often  regarded  as  socialistic  —  are  but  the  application 
to  changed  conditions  of  the  venerable  principles  of 
the  individualists?  The  most  strictly  defensive  war 
has  its  offensive  operations.  A  close  analysis  would 
reveal  the  fact  that  a  very  large  part  of  the  list  of  socialism. 
modern  undertakings  commonly  deemed  socialistic 


8  .   MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  might  properly  be  regarded  as  extensions  of  individu- 
alism. These  are  logical  distinctions,  it  is  true ;  yet 
their  recognition  would  clarify  many  a  fruitless  argu- 
ment, and  set  at  rest  many  a  groundless  apprehension. 
Thus  the  doctrine  of  individualism  itself,  extended  to 
meet  existing  conditions,  may  be  invoked  to  justify 
and  sustain  that  ever-broadening  basis  of  collective 
municipal  activity  upon  which  the  individual  stands  to 
play  his  private  r61e.  If  that  role  is  of  necessity  re- 
stricted in  certain  directions,  it  gains  in  others  much 
more  than  it  surrenders  to  the  central  actor,  the 
municipality. 

In  the  theory  and  art  of  modern  city-making,  we 
must  frankly  acknowledge,  collectivism  has  a  large 
and  growing  place.  The  municipal  corporations,  until 

growth  of    recently  rather  passive  as  political  and  social  organ- 
municipal  .          i  .    ,  ,  .  . 

functions,  isms,  are  now  becoming  highly  conscious  of  their 
organic  entity,  and  highly  active  in  extending  old 
functions  and  assuming  new  ones.  No  short-cut 
method  of  proving  this  would  be  more  conclusive 
than  a  few  comparative  data  on  the  increase  of  muni- 
cipal taxes  and  the  growth  of  municipal  indebtedness. 
The  English  statistics  on  these  lines  are,  for  example, 
especially  instructive.  They  point  to  an  aggressive 
demand  upon  the  resources  of  society  that  has  in- 
creased in  a  ratio  far  higher  either  than  the  relative 
growth  of  town  populations  or  than  the  development 
of  the  national  wealth.  But  I  am  not  willing  to  de- 
duce any  pessimistic  conclusions  from  this  general 
tendency,  whether  exhibited  in  England,  in  Germany, 
or  in  America.  I  do  not  for  a  moment  believe  that 
modern  cities  are  hastening  on  to  bankruptcy,  that 
they  are  becoming  dangerously  socialistic  in  the  range 
of  their  municipal  activities,  or  that  the  high  and  ever 
higher  rates  of  local  taxation  thus  far  indicate  any- 
thing detrimental  to  the  general  welfare.  It  all 


GROWTH  AND  PEOBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES  9 

means  simply  that  the  great  towns  are  remaking  CHAP.  i. 
themselves  physically,  and  providing  themselves  with 
the  appointments  of  civilization,  because  they  have  nent  remak- 
made  the  great  discovery  that  their  new  masses  of  '"towS!" 
population  are  to  remain  permanently.  They  have  in 
practice  rejected  the  old  view  that  the  evils  of  city 
life  were  inevitable,  and  have  begun  to  remedy  them, 
and  to  prove  that  city  life  can  be  made  not  tolerable 
only  for  working-men  and  their  families,  but  posi- 
tively wholesome  and  desirable.  Are  the  magnificent 
activities  and  material  achievements  of  our  century 
an  evil  thing?  It  is  a  false,  unhealthy  philosophy 
that  so  characterizes  them.  They  are  to  be  the  basis 
of  a  high  and  widely  diffused  civilization.  These  ac- 
tivities have  populated  cities  and  industrial  towns; 
and  in  the  sudden,  haphazard,  fortuitous  concourse 
there  have  been  serious  evils.  But  cannot  the  same 
energy  that  has  won  great  achievements  in  the  field 
of  production  solve  the  social  problems  that  have 
sprung  up  in  the  wake  of  those  achievements,  when 
once  it  fairly  grapples  with  them  ?  Modern  society, 
having  learned  how  to  produce  abundantly,  can  also 
find  a  way  to  distribute  the  product  equitably,  and  to 
overcome  the  ills  of  irresponsible  private  wealth  and 
undeserved  poverty.  And  modern  production  hav- 
ing stimulated  the  increase  of  population,  and  massed 
men  in  cities,  can  it  be  so  great  an  evil  that  men  must 
live  where  it  is  ordained  that  they  must  work?  Those  Possibilities 

,  .,         „  ,      .  „  of  the  ideal 

whose  circumstances  permit  a  free  choice  of  environ-  city. 
ment  are  not  primarily  concerned.  But  the  cardinal 
fact  remains  that  the  majority  of  families  must  hence- 
forth, in  increasing  areas  of  the  earth,  live  under 
urban  conditions.  Those  conditions  since  the  open- 
ing of  the  new  industrial  era  have  been  upon  the 
whole  vicious.  They  must  be  so  improved  that  for 
the  average  family  the  life  of  the  town  shall  not  per- 


10  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  force  be  detrimental.  The  race  must  not  decay  in 
city  tenements,  but  somehow  it  must,  under  these 
conditions  of  dense  neighborhood,  find  a  higher  and 
better  life.  Infection,  disease,  a  high  death-rate  must 

City  life 

mustbecome  surrender  to  the  science  of  public  sanitation,  so  that 
p°gooT  y  the  health  of  children  and  the  longevity  of  the  mature 
shall  be  better  assured  in  the  town  than  in  the  coun- 
try, urban  death-rates  falling  below  those  of  the 
nation  at  large.  The  moral  and  educational  environ- 
ment must  be  made  such  as  to  produce  the  best  re- 
sults, and  to  preserve  the  virtue,  intelligence,  industrial 
capacity,  and  physical  stamina  of  the  race. 

It  is  most  encouraging,  from  this  point  of  view,  to 
Present-day  note  the  recent  and  now  progressing  transformations 
tions  of  of  old  European  cities  to  meet  the  needs  of  their  mul- 
ches!111 tiplied  population  —  a  new  population  that  refuses  to 
rest  content  with  the  unwholesomeness  of  old  condi- 
tions, and  demands  broader  and  better  streets,  more 
scientific  drainage,  better  water-supplies,  better  public 
cleansing,  better  sanitary  protection  against  infec- 
tious diseases,  better  illumination,  better  housing,  bet- 
ter urban  transportation  facilities,  better  educational 
facilities,  better  parks  and  opportunities  for  recrea- 
tion, and  all  the  other  improvements  that  modern 
science  can  suggest.  We  find  the  transformation 
further  advanced  in  some  places  than  in  others,  and 
as  yet  complete  nowhere.  But  everywhere  in  Europe 
we  behold  the  struggle  fairly  entered  upon,  and  great 
undertakings  bravely  instituted.  With  the  war-cloud 
continually  hovering  over  these  European  nations, 
and  vast  armaments  draining  the  resources  of  the 
people,  while  emigration  transfers  to  the  New  World 
so  much  of  the  accumulated  capital  and  expensively 
trained  working  energy  of  the  old  countries,  it  is  as- 
tonishing to  note  the  costliness  and  magnificence  of 
the  municipal  improvements  of  recent  years,  and  to 


GROWTH  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES 


11 


observe  the  effort  they  are  universally  making  to  im-  CHAP.  i. 
prove  the  social  and  sanitary  conditions  of  town  life. 
It  requires  no  peculiar  discernment  on  the  part  of  the 
traveler  to  discover  that  large  towns  are  becoming 
alike  the  world  over.  There  is  something  to  be  re-  Large  towns 
gretted  in  the  loss  of  picturesqueness,  quaintness,  and  'hfg  auk™ 
distinctive  flavor.  But  if  our  observer  be  public- 
spirited  and  humane,  the  spread  of  modern  improve- 
ments will  not  greatly  vex  him.  He  will  consider  the 
fact  that  these  changes  redound  to  the  convenience 
and  welfare  of  the  people  now  on  earth,  who  cannot 
live  on  medieval  picturesqueness  or  accommodate  the 
hundredfold  greater  business  of  the  present-day  city 
in  the  narrow  thoroughfares  that  sufficed  for  the 
limited  traffic  of  other  centuries.  He  will  sympathize 
with  the  efforts  of  the  present  generation  of  Italians 
to  make  Rome,  Naples,  and  many  another  historic 
city  the  fit  abiding-place  of  hopeful  communities 
whose  gaze  is  forward  rather  than  backward.  He 
will  be  delighted  with  the  resurrection  and  out-blos- 
soming of  Hungary's  aspiring,  twentieth-century  capi- 
tal, Budapest.  He  will  be  impressed  and  gratified  as 
he  notes  the  renovation  and  development,  on  the 
scientific  lines  of  the  modern  city-making,  of  Athens 
and  Bucharest,  Belgrade  and  Sofia.  And  he  will  find 
food  for  optimistic  reflection  rather  than  for  disap- 
pointment in  the  discovery  that  even  Constantinople, 
Alexandria,  Cairo,  Jerusalem,  and  Damascus  are  be- 
ginning to  take  on  the  municipal  forms  and  appoint- 
ments of  the  western  European  nations. 

It  is  of  great  importance  for  our  present  purpose 
that  we  should  hold  in  clear  remembrance  the  fact 
that,  except  for  its  ancient  core,  its  immemorial  nu- 
cleus, almost  every  European  city  of  our  time  is  al- 
together of  recent  construction.  Not  to  anticipate 
here  in  any  fullness  of  detail  the  statistical  data  that 


Western  re- 
forms in 
Oriental 
capitals. 


12  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  may  belong  more  properly  to  subsequent  chapters,  a 
few  general  statements  regarding  the  growth  of  Eu- 
ropean towns  may  help  to  illumine  the  propositions  of 
this  introductory  discussion.  It  is  in  Great  Britain 
that  modern  industrialism  has  attained  its  highest  de- 
velopment, and  it  was  there  that  the  new  phenomena 
of  the  rapid  expansion  of  town  populations  first  be- 
urbandevei-  came  apparent.  In  Scotland  and  the  north  of  Ener- 

opments  in     ,  . 

Scotland,  land,  especially,  the  change  from  rural  to  urban  con- 
ditions has  been  revolutionary.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century  (census  of  1801)  the  total  pop- 
ulation of  Scotland  was  1,600,000,  and  only  a  small 
proportion  was  made  up  of  town  dwellers.  Rural 
influences  played  a  dominant  part  in  the  forming 
of  those  characteristics — physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral — that  are  deemed  most  distinctive  of  the  Scotch 
people.  But  the  proportions  are  wholly  changed.  The 
Scotch  have  become  an  urban  people.  The  social 
effects  of  altered  industrial  conditions  are  nowhere 
else  more  strikingly  exemplified.  According  to  the 
census  of  1891,  the  total  population  had  grown  to  more 
than  4,000,000,  of  which  only  928,500  was  strictly 
rural.  The  town  population  was  2,631,300,  and  the  vil- 
lagers, forming  an  intermediate  class,  numbered  465,- 
800.  The  rural  population  had  declined  absolutely  in 
the  ten  years  from  1881,  the  decrease  being  5£  per 
cent.,  while  in  the  previous  ten  years,  from  1871  to 
1881,  there  had  also  been  a  loss  of  4  per  cent.  The 
town  population,  on  the  other  hand,  had  increased 
18  per  cent,  from  1871  to  1881,  and  14  per  cent,  from 
1881  to  1891.  The  village  population  shows  a  slight 
growth.  As  against  the  Scotland  of  other  days,  when 
there  were  three  country  dwellers  to  one  citizen  of  a 
town,  there  are  now  three  townspeople  for  every  one 
who  lives  in  the  country.  This  does  not  count  the 
half -million  villagers  in  either  category.  Even  if  they 


GROWTH  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES  13 

are  regarded  as  living  under  conditions  that  belong  to  CHAP.  i. 
the  country  rather  than  to  the  town,  it  still  holds  true 
that  practically  two  thirds  of  the  Scotch  people  now  l^ver^h8 
live  as  townsfolk ;  and  the  reversal  signifies  so  much 
that  it  amounts  to  a  social  revolution  of  prime  mag- 
nitude. The  change  is  all  the  sharper  because  town 
and  country  life  are  in  more  violent  contrast  in  Scot- 
land than  in  other  English-speaking  countries  by  rea- 
son of  the  extraordinary  density  of  the  Scotch  popu- 
lation, even  in  towns  of  moderate  size.  It  is  evident 
that  if  the  Scotch  people  are  to  sustain  their  high  tra- 
ditions, they  must  learn  the  art  of  living  well  in  cities. 
"What  progress  they  have  made  toward  the  mastery  of 
that  art,  for  their  own  preservation  and  for  the  in- 
struction of  other  communities,  I  shall  endeavor  to 
set  forth  in  a  chapter  devoted  to  their  chief  center  of 
population  and  industry. 

The  growth  of  urban  population  in  the  midlands 
and  north  of  England  has  been  no  less  remarkable 
than  in  Scotland.  The  old  English  seaports,  cathedral 
cities,  and  county  towns,  that  were  the  important  popu- 
lation-centers two  hundred  or  even  one  hundred  years 
ago,  have  been  left  hopelessly  behind  in  the  race  for 
greatness  by  the  new  manufacturing  towns.  Of 
twenty-eight  large  cities  and  towns  included  by  the 
Registrar-general  in  a  list  for  the  publication  of  mor- 
tality rates,  fourteen  had  no  corporate  existence  prior 
to  the  Municipal  Reform  Act  of  1835,  and  these  four- 
teen contain  much  more  than  half  the  total  popula- 
tion, while  the  other  fourteen  also  have  had  their  chief 
growth  within  sixty  years.  Manchester,  beginning 

.,,  //  ,  , ,  ,     .  .,  '      .    ?.          ,°    RiseofEng- 

to  grow  rapidly  only  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth    Hsh  manu- 
century,  had  attained  a  population  of  250,000  when      towns!8 
in  1838  it  was  granted  a  municipal  charter.    So  enor- 
mously have  the  manufacturing  interests  of  this  great 
spinning  and  weaving  district  expanded,  that  within 


14  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  a  radius  of  twenty  miles  from  the  Manchester  town- 
hall  there  is  now  a  population  of  more  than  three  mil- 
lion souls,  assigned  to  a  number  of  almost  contiguous 
municipal  corporations.  Birmingham,  another  of  the 
new  manufacturing  towns,  has  half  a  million  people 
of  its  own.  Sheffield,  Bradford,  Salford,  and  many 
other  large  towns  are  of  still  more  recent  incorpor- 
ation than  Manchester  and  Birmingham.  And  not  a 
few  of  those  whose  charters  are  of  earlier  date,  as 
Liverpool,  Leeds,  and  Nottingham,  are  just  as  essen- 
tially modern,  their  earlier  municipal  history  having 
little  or  no  importance.  The  Reform  Act  of  1835  dealt 
with  178  municipal  corporations  in  England  and  Wales, 
and  since  that  time,  under  Queen  Victoria,  125  new 
charters  of  incorporation  have  been  granted.  By  the 
the  recent  census  of  1891,  the  178  old  corporations  had  a  total 
^ions*  population  of  5,483,000,  and  that  of  the  125  new  cor- 
porations was  5,512,000.  The  population  of  England 
and  Wales  in  1891  was  29,000,000;  and  11,000,000 
people  were  living  in  302  cities  and  towns  possessing 
full  municipal  governments.  This  does  not  include 
approximately  6,000,000  inhabitants  of  the  "Greater 
London,"  or  several  million  people  who  are  in  the  sub- 
urban districts  of  large  towns,  or  in  communities  liv- 
ing under  urban  conditions  but  not  embraced  within 
the  present  boundaries  of  municipal  corporations.  The 
administration  of  the  English  public-health  acts  di- 
vides the  country  into  urban  and  rural  sanitary  dis- 
tricts ;  and  this  line  can  best  be  taken  to  distinguish 
the  town  dwellers  from  the  country  dwellers.  The 
urban  sanitary  districts  number  somewhat  more  than 
one  thousand,  and  by  the  last  census  they  contained 
a  population  of  20,800,000.  The  population  of  the 
rural  districts  was  8,200,000.  The  inhabitancy  of  the 
urban  districts  —  nearly  72  per  cent,  of  the  total  — 
had  increased  15.3  per  cent,  from  1881  to  1891.  That 


GROWTH  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES 


15 


A  nation  of 
townsfolk. 


of  the  rural  districts  had  grown  only  3.4  per  cent.  CHAP.  L 
One  third  of  the  whole  population  is  now  in  towns  of 
over  100,000  inhabitants,  and  nearly  another  third  is 
in  towns  having  from  10,000  to  100,000  people.  For 
twenty  years  the  growth  of  the  towns  having  from 
10,000  to  250,000  people  has  been  at  the  average  rate 
of  2  per  cent,  a  year,  or  20  per  cent,  a  decade.  Thus 
town  life  will  soon  prevail  for  three  fourths  of  the 
English  people 

If  in  France  the  tidal  movement  toward  the  towns 
appears  less  strong,  it  is  only  because  of  the  lack  of 
surplus  population  to  be  mobilized.  The  multiplicity  city  versus 
of  small  farms  with  peasant  propi'ietorship  has  been  France. 
favorable  to  the  kinds  of  rural  industry  that  occupy 
many  hands,  while  the  total  population  remains  al- 
most stationary.  Nevertheless,  the  urban  tendency 
is  exhibited  very  strikingly  in  the  fact  that  while  the 
entire  increase  of  the  French  nation  from  the  census 
of  1886  to  the  census  of  1891  was  less  than  125,000, 
there  was  in  those  five  years  a  growth  of  340,000  in 
the  aggregate  population  of  the  fifty-six  largest  cities 
and  towns — those  having  more  than  30,000  people. 
For  many  years  it  has,  in  like  manner,  been  true  that 
the  towns  were  absorbing  more  than  the  total  in- 
crease, and  that  the  country  districts  were  absolutely 
declining.  Nothing  but  the  low  birth-rate  that  pre- 
vails in  France  has  prevented  the  rapid  development 
of  a  great  urban  population.  The  body  of  country 
dwellers  has  for  half  a  century  maintained  itself  at 
about  25,000,000  with  a  slight  but  steady  decline, 
while  the  townsfolk  have  increased  from  a  body  of 
about  7,000,000  to  one  of  13,000,000.  Paris  has  'had 
the  principal  growth,  and  is  more  than  five  times  as 
large  as  it  was  a  hundred  years  ago  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary period.  Lyons  and  Marseilles  had  rather  more 
than  100,000  people  each  at  the  opening  of  the  present 


16  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEE  AT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  century,  and  they  have  now  more  than  400,000  each. 
The  other  large  French  towns  have  for  the  most  part 
grown  to  about  three  times  their  size  at  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  and  nearly  all  of  this  growth  has  been 
in  the  last  half  of  the  period.  Taking  the  ten  largest 
towns  of  France,  including  Paris,  we  find  that  their 
average  population  was  about  100,000  in  1801, 160,000 
in  1835,  and  nearly  450,000  in  1894.  At  a  very  early 
day  the  town  population  of  France  will  be  40  per  cent, 
of  the  whole. 

in  Germany.  In  Germany,  until  lately  a  country  of  farms,  forests, 
and  mountains,  with  a  predominantly  rural  popula- 
tion, the  recent  movement  toward  the  towns  has  been 
almost  unexampled  in  its  rapidity.  Since  the  Franco- 
Prussian  war  the  German  town  population  has  been 
growing  at  the  rate  of  20  per  cent,  a  decade,  while 
the  rural  population  has  been  at  a  standstill.  Berlin 
is  seven  or  eight  times  as  large  as  it  was  in  1831,  and 
the  large  towns  of  all  parts  of  the  new  empire  have 
expanded  astonishingly  within  twenty  years.  The 
German  census  classifies  as  "large"  towns  those  hav- 
ing more  than  100,000  people ;  as  "  middle- sized,"  those 
of  20,000  to  100,000;  as  "  small,"  those  of  5000  to 
20,000 ;  and  as  villages  or  "  country  towns,"  those  of 
2000  to  5000.  The  large  towns  had  7.24  per  cent,  of 
the  whole  population  in  1880,  9.5  per  cent,  in  1885, 
12.1  in  1890,  and  will  undoubtedly  have  15  or  16  per 
cent,  in  1895.  The  towns  of  the  other  three  classes 
have  not  grown  nearly  so  fast,  but  the  census  of  1895 
will  show  that  just  half  the  German  population  is  liv- 
ing in  towns  and  villages  of  2000  people  or  more,  and 
that  nearly  40  per  cent,  are  in  places  having  more 
than  5000. 

Urban  population  grows  apace  also  in  Holland  and 
Belgium.  One  third  of  the  Netherlanders  live  in 
towns  of  20,000  people  or  more,  and  a  quarter  of  the 


GROWTH  AND  PEOBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES  17 

Belgians  are  similarly  grouped.  In  the  twenty-five  CHAP.  i. 
years  from  1868  to  1893,  the  Holland  towns  of  this 
class  advanced  from  possessing  exactly  one  fourth  to 
exactly  one  third  of  the  whole  people.  In  both  Hol- 
land and  Belgium  the  commercial  and  manufacturing 
towns  continue  to  develop  at  a  rate  that  shows  no 
signs  of  abatement.  The  Italians,  until  very  lately, 
had  not  been  affected  in  a  marked  way  by  the  new 
forces  that  are  centralizing  population  in  urban 
groups,  and  the  agricultural  phase  is  still  greatly 
predominant.  Nevertheless,  the  new  municipal  spirit 
has  begun  to  stir  itself  almost  as  strongly  in  the 
chief  Italian  towns  as  anywhere  else  in  the  world;  itaiy. 
and  their  growth  in  population  and  in  the  appurte- 
nances of  the  modern  city  constitutes  a  chapter  of 
progress  well  worth  a  place  in  the  record.  I  shall 
endeavor  to  present  its  outlines  and  salient  features 
in  a  succeeding  volume.  In  thirty  years  Rome  and 
Milan  have  more  than  doubled  their  population ;  Flor- 
ence has  come  little  short  of  the  same  achievement; 
Turin  and  Genoa  are  about  70  per  cent,  larger  than  in 
1864 ;  overcrowded  Naples  has  gained  a  hundred  thou- 
sand people ;  Palermo  has  added  nearly  as  many ;  and 
numerous  large  communes  have  gained  50  per  cent. 
In  future  chapters  on  Vienna  and  Budapest  some  in- 
dications will  be  given  of  the  urban  developments  in 
the  Danubian  valley  that  bear  so  new  and  striking  emUEu^. 
a  character. 

The  growth  of  our  American  cities  is  not  a  subject 
that  I  shall  discuss  in  detail  in  a  series  of  comparisons 
intended  primarily  to  acquaint  American  readers  with 
the  municipal  problems  of  Europe.  Yet  I  may  be  al- 
lowed to  reassert  that  there  is  nothing  peculiar  to  our 
country  in  the  conditions  of  our  urban  development. 
Except  in  the  newest  regions,  it  is  true  here,  as  in 
Europe,  that  rural  population  does  not  grow  at  all. 

I.— 2 


18  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  i.  For  twenty-five  years  the  older  farming  districts  even 
of  Western  States  like  Iowa  and  Minnesota  have  been 
declining  absolutely  in  population,  and  the  towns  are 
receiving  all  the  new  increments,  besides  drawing 

Decline  of    from  the  country.    Farm  machinery  has  lessened  the 

rural  popu-  ,  «       i    .  -i    •  i 

lation  in  the  number  of  people  required  to  cultivate  each  square 
states.  mile  of  farm-land,  and  diversified  industry  creates 
employment  in  the  towns.  And  thus  we  are  facing 
the  same  kind  of  problems  having  to  do  with  the 
amelioration  of  town  life  that  Europe  has  been  and  is 
still  compelled  to  meet.  We  shall  solve  our  problems, 
and  in  the  end  we  shall  do  many  or  most  things  in 
our  own  way,  which  also  will  probably  be  the  best 
way.  But  we  cannot  wisely  continue  to  ignore  the 
lessons  that  European  cities  have  to  teach.  The  pres- 
ent costliness  of  their  past  negligence  might  well  stim- 
ulate us  to  greater  precautions.  For  example,  within 
recent  years  many  of  the  European  cities  of  second 
and  third  as  well  as  all  of  those  of  the  first  rank 
have  been  widening  old  thoroughfares,  cutting  new 
ones  through  solid  masses  of  buildings,  making  open 
spaces  and  breathing-spots,  admitting  air  and  sunlight 
to  dark  and  densely  crowded  neighborhoods,  and  mak- 
ing room  for  the  movement  of  traffic.  To  lay  out 
new  towns,  or  new  additions  to  older  ones,  with  nar- 
row streets  and  insufficient  provision  for  playgrounds, 
Lessons  open  squares,  and  park  room,  is  in  our  day  an  un- 

j^°anto"vns.  pardonable  offense  against  civilization.  Yet  we  find 
numbers  of  our  American  towns,  even  in  the  far 
West,  which  are  making  an  ill  beginning  in  these  re- 
spects, and  are  unquestionably  subjecting  posterity 
to  great  trouble  and  expense.  The  art  of  making  and 
administering  modern  cities  happens  not  to  have  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  the  same  order  of  talent  in 
America  that  it  has  commanded  in  Europe.  In  the 
official  life  of  the  European  municipalities  one  contin- 


GROWTH  AND  PROBLEMS  OF  MODERN  CITIES  19 

ually  finds  men  who  have  a  high  ideal  of  the  munici-     CHAP.  i. 
pality,  and  a  large  conception  of  its  duties  and  possi- 
bilities, besides  possessing  great  technical  knowledge 
and  experience.    A  general  familiarity  with  their  at- 
tempts and  achievements  might  save   our   Ameri- 
can cities  from  some  mistakes,  and  might  stimulate 
them  to  adopt  broader  and  more  generous  municipal      • 
programs. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  EISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS,  THE  REFORM 
ACTS,  AND  THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE 

IN  our  more  particular  survey  of  European  muni- 
cipalities, those  of  Great  Britain  will  claim  first 
attention.  The  English  towns  had  been  governed 
upon  a  popular  plan  by  the  whole  body  of  the  free- 
men in  the  Saxon  days;  and  while  under  the  Norman 
sovereigns  they  became  fiefs  of  the  crown,  "royal 
boroughs,"  they  retained  for  a  long  time  most  of  their 
old  privileges  of  self-government.  At  length,  how- 
ever, their  character  was  changed.  In  the  fifteenth 
century  they  began  to  secure  charters  of  incorporation, 
usually  by  purchase  from  the  crown,  or  by  pledge  of 
generous  annual  contributions  to  the  royal  exchequer. 
boroughs.6  The  boroughs,  as  they  were  entitled,  had  representa- 
tion in  Parliament,  and  they  played  no  small  part  in 
the  overthrow  of  the  feudal  system  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  modern  political  order.  Having  helped 
to  reform  Parliament,  in  due  time  Parliament  returned 
the  favor  and  reformed  and  modernized  them. 

The  most  active  and  influential  elements  in  the  me- 
dieval town  life  were  the  associations  of  the  craftsmen 
and  merchants  of  a  like  trade.  These  societies  or  guilds 
were  at  the  outset  voluntary  organizations  for  social 
purposes  and  mutual  benefit — for  the  regulation  of  ap- 
prenticeships and  the  protection  of  the  interests  of  the 
particular  craft.  They  served  a  very  useful  purpose 

in  the  period  when  industrial  life  and  municipal  citi- 

20 


THE  RISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  21 

zenship  were  repressed  and  obscured  by  feudal  gov-  CHAP.  n. 
ernment.  And  it  was  their  effective  organization, 
and  their  united  action  through  their  central  delegate 
bodies, — the  merchants'  house  and  the  trades'  house, 
—  that  availed  in  many,  if  not  in  most,  instances  to 
secure  charters  of  self-government  for  the  towns.  In- 
asmuch as  all  reputable  men  in  these  towns  exercised 
some  useful  calling,  and  were  supposed  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  guilds,  it  became  the  custom  to  vest 
the  control  of  the  town  affairs  in  the  hands  of  the 
members  or  "  freemen  "  of  these  companies.  The  mu- 
nicipalities, or  boroughs,  had  previously  been  mere 
local  aggregations,  with  no  assured  institutions  or 
permanent  character.  Now  they  became  corporations, 
legal  personages,  with  vested  rights  subject  to  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  courts.  Assuming  that  the  mem-  Government 
bers  of  the  trades  guilds  were  the  freemen  or  burgesses 
named  in  these  charters  of  incorporation  as  the  gov- 
erning body  of  the  community, — which  was  usually, 
though  not  invariably,  the  case, —  it  is  interesting  to 
consider  how  well  adapted  their  government  was  to 
the  existing  condition,  and  what  was  the  state  of  mu- 
nicipal life  in  those  old  times.  It  is  easy  to  praise  too 
glowingly  the  system  of  that  period,  and  also  easy  to 
disparage  it  with  too  little  qualification.  Its  chief 
merit,  perhaps,  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  was  indeed  a 
system.  Every  man  had  his  place  and  status  in  the 
industrial  and  commercial  world,  and  by  virtue  of 
that  place  and  status  he  had  his  position  fixed  for  him 
in  the  public  life  of  the  community.  Feudal  institu- 
tions had  subjected  the  many  to  the  few,  but  had  at 
least  provided  a  place  and  a  relationship  for  every 
one.  The  rise  of  town  life,  which  dignified  mercantile 
pursuits  and  handicrafts,  had  opposed  the  system  of 
leagued  and  equal  freemen,  of  burgesses,  of  incorpo- 
rated citizenship,  to  the  feudal  military  system  of  lord- 

L—  2* 


22  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ii.  ship  and  vassalage.  And  this  was  a  great  preparatory 
step  toward  modern  institutions  and  conditions.  We 
know  that  there  was  a  certain  dignity  and  form  about 
municipal  life  that  appears  well  in  the  retrospect.  We 
have  surviving,  here  and  there,  a  fine  old  medieval 
town-hall,  or  guild-hall,  with  its  banqueting-chamber 
and  its  council-room.  There  was  much  stateliness  in 
the  office  of  mayor;  and  the  old  maces  of  mayoral 
authority  survive  to  this  day.  Then  there  was  im- 
pressiveness  in  the  liveries  that  the  freemen  of  the 
guilds  disported  on  formal  occasions.  As  for  muni- 
cipal conveniences,  those  were  times  when  life  was 
simple,  and  "modern  improvements"  not  so  much  as 
dreamed  about.  The  streets  were  narrow,  with  the 
houses  built  close  upon  them.  The  paving  was  of  the 
rudest  character.  There  was  simple  surface  drain- 
age, and  no  garbage  removal  or  cleansing  system. 

town  life.  Water  was  supplied  from  a  few  town  fountains  or 
public  wells.  Street-lighting  had  not  been  invented, 
and  early  hours  were  prescribed.  Most  towns  had  a 
skirting  of  common  lands  where  the  cows  were  pas- 
tured, and  where,  in  many  cases,  fuel  was  procured. 
The  houses  were,  in  large  part,  built  of  wood ;  and  in 
spite  of  vigilant  "  watch  and  ward  "  and  compulsory 
hearth  precautions,  destructive  fires  were  not  infre- 
quent. The  death-rate,  of  course,  was  high.  There 
was  infection  in  the  wells,  and  no  means  of  checking 
the  spread  and  fatality  of  the  frequent  "plagues"  that 
swept  the  towns.  But  the  science  of  public  sanitation 
being  undiscovered,  these  things  were  accepted  piously 
as  inscrutable  visitations  of  God.  There  are,  to-day, 
certain  big  villages  in  the  interior  of  Ireland,  remote 
from  the  railway  lines,  that,  as  I  strongly  suspect,  re- 
tain many  of  the  characteristics  of  old  English  borough 
life.  There  is  more  squalor  and  poverty,  doubtless,  in 
these  Irish  villages,  and  less  of  dignity  and  order  in 


THE  RISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  23 

the  local  government  and  institutions.    But  the  stan-     CHAP.  H. 
dard  of  living  and  the  character  of  town  conveniences 
are  probably  similar. 

However  fairly  representative  of  the  people  of  the 
towns  these  municipal  corporations  may  for  some  time 
have  been,  they  fell  an  easy  prey  at  length  to  great  *taM»ia«iM 
abuses.  Their  character  as  parliamentary  constitu-  "JLtmV 
eneies  tempted  the  arbitrary  Tudor  sovereigns,  and 
still  more  their  successors  the  Stuarts.  It  was  for  the  . 
interest  of  these  sovereigns  to  restrict  the  corpora, 
tions  to  the  smallest  membership,  to  make  them  as 
close  and  non-representative  as  possible,  and  to  bring 
them  by  every  available  means  under  royal  influence 
and  control.  The  course  of  their  degeneration  is  a 
long  story,  the  details  of  which  are  different  for  each 
town.  But  the  principle  at  work  was  usually  the 
same.  The  immediately  governing  body  in  most  towns 
gradually  became  a  handful  of  men  forming  a  close, 
self -perpetuating  corporation.  In  many  instances  the 
crown  packed  the  town-governing  bodies  with  hono- 
rary, non-resident  freemen.  The  corporations  of  men 
chartered  to  rule  the  communities  became  less  and  less 
representative  of  the  mass  of  the  town  dwellers,  and 
more  and  more  irresponsible.  As  old  public  proper- 
ties grew  in  value,  and  as  old  charitable  trusts  waxed 
remunerative  through  the  appreciation  and  accumu- 
lation of  investments,  grave  financial  abuses  grew  up 
in  the  administration  of  these  now  scandalous  mu-  * 

nicipal  corporations.  Through  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  situation  grew  from  bad  to  worse.  Scores 
of  the  corporations  were  held  as  "  pocket  boroughs  "  boroughs/- 
by  the  crown,  the  ministers  of  state,  and  the  great  lords, 
who  used  them  to  dictate  their  representation  in  Par- 
liament. The  municipalities  became  in  large  part  a 
great  vested  interest,  held  in  a  few  hands  and  used 
corruptly  and  wickedly  to  demoralize  politics  and  mis- 


24:  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ii.  govern  the  nation.  As  for  the  towns  themselves,  in 
their  local  management,  they  were  neglected  and  in  a 
disgraceful  state. 

The  aggravated  ills  of  this  situation  were  rendered 
Decay  of  the  intolerable  by  the  rise  of  modern  industry.  The  old 
tHai  system,  organization  of  crafts  and  trades  had  become  hope- 
lessly obsolete,  so  that  the  earlier  industrial  society  of 
the  towns  was  now  disordered  beyond  recognition. 
To  add  to  the  confusion,  there  came  pouring  into  the 
centers  of  the  new  industry  the  surplus  population 
of  the  rural  districts  and  of  the  small  villages,  whose 
household  crafts  and  industries  had  been  superseded 
by  the  development  of  the  factory  system.  It  is  not 
for  me  here  even  to  summarize  that  chapter  of  misery 
and  degradation.  There  are  novels  that  depict  the 
horrors  of  early  factory  life  —  the  long  hours  of  labor 
for  women  and  children  as  well  as  men,  and  the  vice 
and  turpitude  that  prevailed  among  the  industrial  pop- 
ulation. The  economic  writings  of  Ricardo  and  Mal- 
thus  have  the  color  of  that  period.  But  while  the 
industrial  society  of  England  in  the  first  three  decades 
of  this  century  has  been  described  with  some  fullness, 
we  have  fewer  graphic  and  accessible  accounts  of  the 
life  of  the  towns,  distinctly  considered.  The  old  cor- 
porations were  still  existent,  continuing  their  careers 
Degradation  of  scandal  and  misgovernment ;  while,  as  for  the  new 
tory  towns,  towns, — the  simple  hamlets  and  villages  that  had  ex- 
panded into  centers  of  manufacturing  activity, —  they 
had  no  municipal  government  of  any  character,  and  no 
representation  in  Parliament.  They  were  merely  pop- 
ulous parts  of  the  counties  —  Lancashire  or  Yorkshire 
or  some  other  —  in  which  they  happened  to  be.  Their 
town  life  was  of  a  kind  that  beggars  description.  Im- 
properly constructed  tenements  were  hurriedly  pro- 
vided to  house  the  working  population,  and  the  evils 
of  overcrowding  were  beyond  belief.  These  structures 


THE  RISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 


25 


teemed  with  human  life  from  cellar  to  garret  —  one 
family,  two  families,  or  even  three  families  in  a  single 
room  being  common.  The  mortality  became  a  fear- 
ful thing.  Epidemic  diseases  could  not  be  controlled, 
and  cleanliness,  which  was  no  part  of  the  habits  of 
the  people,  was,  under  the  circumstances,  in  any  case 
a  physical  impossibility.  The  streets  were  abomin- 
able. There  was  almost  nothing  to  break  the  mo- 
notony and  meanness  of  the  domestic  architecture. 
Efficient  common  services  of  water,  drainage,  or  illu- 
mination were,  of  course,  wholly  lacking.  Religion 
lost  its  hold,  except  as  Methodism  came  partly  to  the 
rescue  with  an  uncurbed  enthusiasm  that  seemed  to 
fit  the  conditions  of  the  people.  Drunkenness,  prize- 
fighting, dog-  and  cock-fights,  such  were  the  prevalent 
diversions.  There  was  no  pretense  of  a  good  society 
in  the  industrial  towns.  There  were  no  schools  worth 
mentioning,  no  libraries,  almost  no  civilizing  agencies 
whatever.  Those  were  the  days  of  Robert  Owen's  de- 
spair of  the  industrial  society,  and  of  his  attempts  at 
Utopian  reform. 

The  whole  political  structure,  general  as  well  as  lo- 
cal, had  become  so  vicious  that  the  national  spirit 
awakened  in  stormy  protest,  and  it  became  plain  that 
the  alternative  was  reform  or  a  revolution.  Of  neces- 
sity the  reform  began  with  Parliament  itself.  The 
great  act  of  1832  reconstructed  the  boroughs  for  the 
purposes  of  the  parliamentary  franchise.  The  "rot- 
ten "  and  "  pocket "  boroughs  were  deprived  of  their 
seats  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Small  places  that 
had  previously  been  entitled  to  separate  representa- 
tion in  Parliament  were  merged  for  that  purpose  with 
the  counties.  The  large  new  towns,  many  of  which 
were  not  yet  incorporated,  were  designated  as  parlia- 
mentary boroughs  with  representation  adjusted  in 
some  measure  to  their  size  and  importance.  With  a 


CHAP.  II. 


Overcrowd- 
ing and  epi- 
demics. 


The  era  of 
reform. 


26  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ii.  reformed  parliament  duly  installed  at  Westminster,  it 
became  possible  to  attack  successfully  the  abuses  and 
anomalies  of  local  administration.  Commissions  were 
appointed  to  study  exhaustively  the  condition  of  the 
municipal  corporations  of  the  three  kingdoms.  The 
Scotch  towns,  being  fewer  and  less  complicated  in 
their  traditional  structure  and  corporate  claims  than 
those  of  England,  were  reformed  first,  their  case  being 
met  by  the  Scotch  Municipal  Government  Act  of  1833. 

Work  of  the  .      .  *  _^ 

municipal  The  commission  found  its  task,  as  regarded  the  Eng- 
lish  cities,  a  colossal  one,  but  the  work  was  performed 
in  monumental  fashion.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  each  corporation  had  sheltered  itself  behind  its 
accretion  of  old  charters,  alleged  prescriptive  rights, 
immemorial  customs  and  self -created  usages,  and  that 
no  two  were  governed  in  exactly  the  same  way,  while 
none  was  accountable  to  any  central  authority  or  held 
to  any  duty  of  making  public  its  expenditures  or  trans- 
actions. What  the  investigation  of  Parliament  proved 
beyond  any  possibility  of  contradiction  is  summed  up 
in  the  most  moderate  terms  by  a  distinguished  author- 
ity l  as  follows : 

The  municipal  corporations  were,  for  the  most  part,  in  the 
hands  of  narrow  and  self-elected  cliques,  who  administered  lo- 
cal affairs  for  their  own  advantage  rather  than  for  that  of  the 
borough;  the  inhabitants  were  practically  deprived  of  all  power 
of  local  self-government,  and  were  ruled  by  those  whom  they 
had  not  chosen  and  in  whom  they  had  no  confidence ;  the  cor- 
porate funds  were  wasted;  the  interests  and  improvements  of 
towns  were  not  cared  for ;  the  local  courts  were  too  often  cor- 
rupted by  party  influence,  and  failed  to  render  impartial  jus- 
tice ;  and  municipal  institutions,  instead  of  strengthening  and 
supporting  the  political  framework  of  the  country,  were  a  source 
of  weakness  and  a  fertile  cause  of  discontent. 

Local  self-government  was  the  primary  object  that 
the  reform  measures  sought  to  secure.    In  ancient 
times  the  householders  had  been  the  voters,  and  their 
1  Sir  J.  R.  Somers  Vine,  F.  S.  S. 


THE  EISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  27 

representatives  had  governed.  Return  was  made  to  CHAP.  n. 
this  principle.  What  had  been  close  corporations 
became  open  to  the  citizens.  It  remained  for  later 
enactments  to  grant  the  suffrage  to  the  laboring 
classes ;  but  the  municipal  reform  of  1835,  following 
the  lines  of  the  parliamentary  franchise  of  1832,  ad- 
mitted  to  the  burgess  right  all  property-owners,  and 
all  occupiers  of  rented  property  that  was  rated  as 
worth  £10  per  annum.  That  is  to  say,  the  occupant 
of  a  residence  or  a  shop  that  rented  for  a  dollar  a 
week  was  now  entitled  to  vote,  and  the  voting  citizens 
became  the  corporate  body.  The  new  system  retained 
the  titles  of  mayor  and  aldermen,  as  well  as  that  of 
common  councilors.  But  in  reality  it  provided  for  a 
municipal  government  exercised  by  an  elected  com- 
mittee of  the  burgesses  or  citizens.  The  act  provided 
that  common  councils,  varying  in  size  according  to 
the  population,  should  be  elected ;  that  these  councils 
should  add  to  their  own  body  by  selecting  a  certain 
number  of  aldermen ;  and  that  this  chamber  of  coun- 
cilors and  aldermen  should  appoint  the  mayor  from 
its  own  number,  who  should  act  as  its  presiding  offi- 
cer. The  one  body  of  mayor,  aldermen,  and  coun- 
cilors was  constituted  the  full  municipal  governing 
authority.  It  is  not  necessary  at  this  point  to  explain 
the  differences  of  detail  between  the  Scotch  and  Eng- 
lish systems,  for  their  main  features  are  similar,  and 
their  practical  operation  is  harmonious. 

Lord  John  Russell,  in  introducing  the  Municipal 
Reform  Bill  of  1835,  remarked: 

I  have  no  doubt  that  when  this  new  constitution  of  the  muni- 
cipal boroughs  comes  into  effect,  we  shall  find  not  only  that  it 
will  be  productive  of  great  improvements,  not  only  that  many 
defects  will  be  remedied  and  many  abuses  corrected,  but  that 
the  working  of  the  bill  itself  will  point  out  how  the  whole  system 
may  be  perfected. 


28  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GEEAT  BEITAIN 

CHAP.  ii.  His  observations  have  been  justified  by  the  results. 
The  bill  reformed  and  assimilated  the  government  of 
178  existing  boroughs  (about  seventy  in  Scotland  had 

GsuUs.re  been  reconstructed  by  the  act  of  1833),  and  provided 
an  intelligible  system  under  which  125  more  English 
and  "Welsh  towns  have  come  into  the  enjoyment  of 
corporate  privileges.  From  time  to  time  new  enact- 
ments applying  in  general  to  all  municipal  corpora- 
tions were  made  by  Parliament,  modifying  at  some 
points  the  structure  of  town  government,  but  affect- 
ing more  usually  the  scope  and  functions  of  the  muni- 
cipal administration.  The  chief  outlines  of  the  act 
of  1835  had  remained  unobscured.  Considered  as  a 
system,  the  municipal  government  of  England  had  ac- 
quired a  permanent  foundation  and  a  stanch  frame- 
work. But  nearly  half  a  century  of  experience  and  of 

Consolidated  .          •       , •.,••,          -,  •    i   v.c     if  j      i         j 

code  of  1882.  growing  institutional  and  social  lite  had  placed  sev- 
eral scores  of  additional  laws  upon  the  statute-books 
when,  in  1882,  it  was  decided  to  consolidate  and  re- 
vise all  existing  statutory  provisions  relating  to  the 
incorporated  towns  into  a  lucid  municipal  code.  The 
law  of  1835,  together  with  nearly  sixty  other  statutes, 
which  it  was  proposed  to  recast  into  the  simplest  and 
most  orderly  series  of  codified  statements,  constituted 
a  body  of  law  the  purport  of  which  has  been  well 
summarized  by  Sir  J.  R.  Somers  Vine  as  follows : 

(a)  To  constitute  a  corporation  composed  of  a  mayor,  alder- 
men, and  burgesses,  acting  by  a  council  in  which  the  general 
TpalIframe-  ^>°^7  °f  burgesses  were  represented  by  from  twelve  to  sixty-four 
work.  members  thereof.  The  burgesses,  by  which  term  is  indicated 
those  individuals  enjoying  the  privileges  of  voting,  consisted 
of  householders  within  the  borough  (residents  within  seven 
miles  of  it,  and  payers  of  borough  and  poor  rates) ;  an  occu- 
pancy of  not  less  than  twelve  months  being  necessary,  and 
non-payment  of  rates  or  acceptance  of  poor-relief  entailed  de- 
privation of  the  franchise.  The  register  of  voters,  or  "  burgess 
roll,"  was  prepared  annually,  and,  in  boroughs  both  municipal 


THE  RISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 


29 


and  parliamentary,  settled  by  a  revising  barrister ;  in  boroughs 
municipal  only,  that  duty  devolved  upon  the  mayor,  aided  by  two 
annually  elected  assessors.  The  burgesses  elected  the  council- 
ors by  ballot,  on  the  first  of  November  in  each  year,  and  the 
council  chose  the  aldermen  bi-annually  (one  for  every  three 
councilors),  and  the  mayor  annually.  The  qualification  for  a 
councilor  or  alderman  was  £1000  property  or  £30  rating,  if  the 
borough  was,  before  the  year  1869,  divided  into  four  or  more 
wards,  or  £500  property  or  £15  rating  in  other  cases,  and  resi- 
dence within  fifteen  miles  of  the  borough ;  but  by  a  very  recent 
act  (43  Viet.  c.  17)  this  restriction  was  modified  in  a  very  im- 
portant sense,  as  any  person  qualified  to  be  a  burgess  was  there- 
by qualified  to  serve  as  alderman  or  councilor.  The  property 
qualification  then  applied  only  to  burgesses  living  beyond  seven 
but  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  borough.  In  such  boroughs  as 
were  divided  into  wards  the  councilors  were  apportioned  among, 
and  separately  elected  in,  the  several  wards.  A  person  might 
be  chosen  an  alderman  although  he  had  not  been  elected  a  coun- 
cilor, but  the  mayor  had  to  be  selected  from  the  aldermen  or 
councilors.  By  virtue  of  his  appointment  the  mayor  became  a 
justice  of  the  peace  for  the  borough  during  his  tenure  of  office 
and  one  year  after.  There  were  certain  monetary  penalties, 
limited  in  amount,  for  the  non-acceptance  of  office. 

(6)  To  provide  for  the  performance  of  the  following  functions 
(amongst  others  of  a  minor  character) : 

(1)  Administration  of  justice  in  local  criminal  and  civil 
courts. 

(2)  Appointment  and  supervision  of  police. 

(3)  Administration  of  public  property  and  the  levy  of  rates 
when  such  property  is  not  sufficient  to  meet  the  public  expenses. 

(4)  The  enactment  of  by-laws  and  appointment  and  dismissal 
of  public  servants. 

(5)  Execution  of  sanitary  regulations  under  the  public-health 
acts. 

(6)  Paving,  lighting,  supplying  water,  cleansing,  and  main- 
tenance and  improvement  of  thoroughfares  and  sewerage. 

(7)  Establishment  and  maintenance  of  public  buildings, 
works,  museums,  and  libraries. 

(8)  Making  and  maintaining  harbors,  docks,  and  naviga- 
tions. 

(9)  Administration  of  special  charitable  trusts. 

(10)  Superintendence  and  enforcement  of  educational  regu- 
lations where  there  is  no  school-board. 


CHAP.  II. 


Functions  of 

English 

municipal 

government. 


30  MUNICIPAL  GCrt^RNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ii.  The  Code  groups  its  topics  into  thirteen  parts,  and 
contains  altogether  269  sections.  It  may  be  worth  our 
while  to  devote  some  space  to  an  analysis  of  its  ar- 
rangement and  provisions.  Part  I  is  preliminary, 
and  sets  forth  in  detail  the  division  and  section  titles 
of  the  entire  act,  lists  the  enactments  that  are  super- 
seded and  repealed,  declares  the  act  applicable  to  all  in- 
corporated cities  and  towns  existing  and  hereafter  to 
be  created,  except  in  Scotland  and  Ireland,  and  defines 
and  construes  terms  and  phrases.  Part  II  is  the  most 
essential  one,  inasmuch  as  it  prescribes  the  constitution 
and  government  of  municipal  corporations.  The  bur- 
gesses are  declared  to  be  those  entitled  to  be  so  en- 
franchise, rolled  because,  being  of  full  age  and  having  lived  for 
twelve  months  in  the  borough  or  within  seven  miles 
of  it,  they  are  also  occupants  of  premises  of  some  kind 
inside  the  town  limits,  have  been  rated  for  the  poor- 
relief  fund  on  account  of  such  occupancy,  and  have 
paid  all  rates  within  the  proper  period,  having  mean- 
while received  no  public  alms  themselves.  This  means 
every  man  of  family  living  in  the  town,  every  woman 
who  is  the  head  of  a  family  or  a  business,  and  every 
man  or  woman  living  outside  the  limits  (within  seven 
miles)  who  occupies  business  property  inside.  Thus 
the  municipal  franchise  is  broad  enough  to  include 
every  family  that  lives  or  does  business  in  a  town,  ex- 
cept those  who  are  paupers.  The  acceptance  of  public 
relief  disfranchises  only  for  the  following  election. 

The  whole  substance  of  British  municipal  govern- 
ment is  condensed  in  the  following  clause  : 

The  municipal  corporation  of  a  borough  shall  be  capable  of 
The  council    acting  by  the  council  of  the  borough,  and  the  council  shall  exer- 

6X6FC1S6S 

all  powers,     cise  all  powers  vested  in  the  corporation  by  this  Act  or  otherwise. 

All  that  the  burgesses  have  to  do  is  to  elect  the  coun- 
cilors, and  they  do  the  rest.    Any  burgess  is  eligible 


THE  EISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  31 

to  the  council.    In  addition,  certain  property  and  rate-    CHAP.  u. 
paying  qualifications  admit  to  eligibility  for  the  coun- 
cil those  suburbans  who  live  beyond  seven  but  within 
fifteen  miles  from  the  limits,  yet  have  their  business 
interests  in  the  town.     The  councilors  are  elected  for 
three  years,  and  one  third  of  them  retire  annually. 
The  aldermen  and  mayor  are  an  integral  'part  of  the 
council,  the  law  stating  specifically  that  "  the  council 
shall  consist  of  the  mayor,  aldermen,  and  councilors."    Mayor,  ai- 
The  aldermen  "  shall  be  fit  persons  elected  by  the  coun-    ro™ecnors. 
cil."    They  hold  their  office  six  years.     They  are  one 
third  as  many  as  the  councilors.     The  act  declares : 

A  person  shall  not  be  qualified  to  be  elected  or  to  be  an  alder- 
man unless  he  is  a  councilor  or  qualified  to  be  a  councilor.  If 
a  councilor  is  elected  to,  and  accepts,  the  office  of  alderman  he 
vacates  his  office  of  councilor. 

Half  the  aldermen  retire  every  three  years.  When 
the  council  confers  aldermanic  rank  upon  its  own  mem- 
bers, special  elections  in  the  wards  fill  the  vacant  coun- 
cilorships. 

The  clause  relating  to  the  choice  of  a  mayor  is  as 
follows : 

The  mayor  shall  be  a  fit  person  elected  by  the  council  from 
among  the  aldermen  or  councilors  or  persons  qualified  to  be 
such. 

The  law  of  1835  made  it  necessary  for  the  council 
to  put  one  of  its  own  number  into  the  mayor's  chair, 
and  the  honor  was  generally  accorded  to  an  alderman 
of  long  service.  The  revision  of  1882  makes  it  possi- 
ble to  elect  any  citizen ;  but  the  practice  remains  as 
before.  The  mayor  is  elected  for  a  year,  and  is  eligi- 
ble to  reelection.  He  appoints  an  alderman  or  coun- 
cilor to  act  as  deputy  mayor.  He  presides  at  council 
meetings,  but  has  no  veto  power,  and  no  authority  as 


32 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  II. 


Municipal 
appointees. 


Conduct  of 
business. 


Auditors. 


Wards. 


an  appointing  officer ;  but  he  is  ex  officio  a  magistrate 
of  the  rank  of  justice  of  the  peace. 

The  council  appoints  two  important  standing  offi- 
cers, the  town  clerk  and  the  treasurer,  outside  its  own 
membership,  and  makes  appointment  of  such  other 
officers  and  department  heads  as  it  finds  necessary, 
and  all  such  officers  must  report  to  the  council. 

Frequent  council  meetings  may  be  called,  but  the 
law  makes  obligatory  at  least  four  quarterly  meetings 
for  general  business.  The  law  authorizes  the  council 
to  appoint  from  their  own  body  general  or  special 
standing  committees  "  for  any  purpose  which,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  council,  would  be  better  regulated  and 
managed  by  means  of  such  committees ;  but  the  acts 
of  every  such  committee  shall  be  submitted  to  the 
council  for  their  approval."  The  council  is  author- 
ized to  make  by-laws,  for  the  good  rule  and  govern- 
ment of  the  borough,  in  meetings  at  which  at  least 
two  thirds  of  the  members  are  present,  and  forty  days 
must  elapse  after  its  publication  before  a  by-law  can 
take  effect,  the  central  government  of  the  kingdom 
having  the  power  to  postpone  or  disallow  the  by-law. 

The  mayor  names  an  auditor  from  the  council,  and 
the  council  appoints  two  others  (usually  expert  ac- 
countants) from  outside  the  official  ranks,  and  these 
three  audit  the  semi-annual  accounts  of  the  treasurer, 
who  is  obliged  by  law  to  print  annually  a  full  abstract 
of  accounts.  The  town  clerk  must  also  make  a  yearly 
return  to  the  Local  Government  Board  —  one  of  the 
executive  departments  of  the  national  government  — 
of  the  receipts  and  expenditures  of  the  municipal  cor- 
poration. 

The  division  of  a  town  into  wards,  or  the  rearrange- 
ment of  existing  wards,  is  accomplished  by  a  petition 
to  the  Queen,  two  thirds  of  the  council  having  agreed 
to  the  plan.  The  council,  of  course,  is  the  real  actor, 


THE  EISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  33 

but  nominally  the  Crown,  acting  through  the  Local     CHAP.  H. 
Government  Board,  effects  the  change.     The  number 
of  councilors  assigned  to  a  ward  must  be  three,  or  a 
multiple  of  three.  Non-accept- 

For  non-acceptance  of  office  —  certain  exemptions  penalties. 
being  allowed — the  law  provides  that  the  council  may 
fix  a  penalty,  not  to  exceed  £100  in  the  case  of  a  mayor, 
or  £50  in  that  of  an  alderman,  councilor,  auditor,  or 
revising  officer.  In  the  absence  of  any  by-law,  the 
statute  prescribes  fines  of  half  the  amounts  named 
above. 

Part  III  of  the  Code  is  devoted  to  municipal  elec- 
tions— from  the  preparation  of  the  burgess  lists  to  the 
selection  of  mayor.  The  revised  burgess  rolls  are 
completed  before  October  20  each  year,  and  the  town 
clerk  is  obliged  to  print  the  names  of  all  persons  en- 
rolled or  claiming  the  right  to  be.  The  safeguards 
that  protect  registration  are  many  and  well  devised. 
The  danger  is  that  the  registration  machinery  may 
interfere  with  a  full  enrolment,  rather  than  that  any 
improper  names  will  be  admitted  to  it.  Election  day  Nominations 
is  November  1.  At  least  nine  days  before  the  election  elections. 
the  town  clerk  must  post  notices  on  the  town  hall, 
and  in  the  wards  where  councilors  are  to  be  elected. 
Nominations  are  filed  with  the  town  clerk.  All  that  is 
necessary  to  a  valid  nomination  is  the  signature  of  a 
proposer,  a  seconder,  and  eight  other  citizens,  all  of 
the  ten  being  enrolled  as  voters  in  the  ward.  The 
nominations  must  be  filed  at  least  seven  days  before 
the  election.  All  valid  nominations  are  printed  on 
the  official  ballot-paper.  If  only  one  nomination  is 
filed  in  a  ward  where  one  councilor  is  to  be  elected, 
the  polls  are  not  opened  and  the  nominee  is  declared 
elected.  In  like  manner  in  a  small  town  which  is  not 
divided  into  wards,  where  there  are  several  councilors 
to  be  elected  and  the  nominations  do  not  exceed  the 

I.- 3 


34 


MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 


CHAP.  II. 


Corrupt 
practices. 


Municipal 
property. 


Charitable 
trusts. 


number  of  places  to  be  filled,  the  candidates  are  de- 
clared elected.  The  election  of  aldermen  occurs  on 
November  9  at  the  quarterly  meeting  of  the  council 
immediately  following  the  election  of  the  mayor.  The 
admission  of  women  householders  to  the  municipal 
franchise  is  not  attended  with  eligibility  for  office. 

The  next  portion  of  the  Code  (Part  IV)  contains 
very  elaborate  provisions  for  the  punishment  of  cor- 
rupt practices  in  municipal  elections.  It  has  been 
superseded  by  the  still  more  detailed  enactment  of 
1884  covering  the  whole  subject.  It  is  enough,  per- 
haps, to  say  that  these  bristling  regulations,  which 
hedge  about  the  election  of  town  councilors  with  as 
formidable  defenses  as  those  that  guard  parliamentary 
elections,  are  absolutely  efficacious. 

Part  V  of  the  Code  deals  with  corporate  property 
and  liabilities,  and  defines  the  powers  of  the  council 
with  respect  to  the  purchase  and  sale  of  land  and 
buildings,  and  the  borrowing  of  money  for  public 
purposes.  The  subject  is  treated  with  much  detail ; 
but  in  general  it  may  be  said  that  for  every  important 
step  it  proposes  to  take  the  council  must  go  through 
the  form  of  obtaining  the  sanction  of  the  Treasury,  or 
other  departments  of  the  general  government,  under 
a  prescribed  system. 

The  object  of  Part  VI  was  to  bring  under  the  uni- 
form control  of  the  council  various  charitable  and 
other  trusts  of  earlier  periods,  and  also  to  make  the 
council  the  trustees  in  the  case  of  matters  of  local  ad- 
ministration that  had,  under  earlier  acts  of  Parliament, 
been  committed  to  some  other  agency.  Concentration 
of  local  authority  in  the  immediate  hands  of  the  one 
central  council  is  the  key-note  to  this  part  of  the  Code, 
as,  indeed,  to  the  whole  instrument. 

Part  VII  has  to  do  with  revenues  and  expenditure. 
It  begins  with  the  "  borough  fund,"  which  consists  of 


THE  BISE  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  ,  35 

the  income  derived  from  corporate  property,  from     CHAP.  n. 
fines,  and  from  other  sources  than  a  levy  of  rates,  and 
which  is  to  go  as  far  as  may  be  toward  public  ex-  The  budget, 
penses.    Its  insufficiency  is  to  be  met  by  the  ordering 
of  a  "  borough  rate."   The  method  of  assessment  is  pre- 
scribed with  much  particularity.    It  is  enough  to  say 
that  the  rate  is  levied  against  the  occupiers  of  houses 
and  real  property,  upon  the  annual  rental  value. 

The  title  of  Part  VIII  is"  Administration  of  Justice." 
Mayors  are  borough  -justices  while  in  office,  and  for 

J  _  &    TJ      ,  Courts  of 

a  year  afterward.  In  the  smaller  towns  and  cities  justice. 
the  county  justices  have  jurisdiction,  and  hold  quarter- 
sessions.  In  the  larger  ones,  on  petition  of  the  coun- 
cil, a  separate  "  commission  of  the  peace  "  is  granted 
by  the  Queen,  and  her  Majesty  proceeds  from  time  to 
time  to  commission  persons  to  act  as  justices.  The 
justices  for  a  borough  appoint  a  clerk,  and  the  coun- 
cil makes  provision  of  proper  accommodation  for  the 
business  of  the  justices.  The  council  may  make  peti- 
tion for  the  appointment  of  one  or  more  "  stipendiary 
magistrates"  (salaried  police-judges);  and  the  large 
towns  have  availed  themselves  of  this  provision.  To 
the  large  towns  is  also  accorded  a  judge,  called  a  "  re- 
corder," who  holds  "  quarter-sessions "  as  a  court  of 
record  with  jurisdiction  in  criminal  matters.  He  also 
holds  a  "  borough  civil  court."  The  large  towns,  being 
counties  of  themselves,  have  each  its  sheriff,  appointed 
by  the  council,  and  its  coroner,  whose  selection  is  also 
in  the  council's  hands.  Every  burgess  is  presumably 
liable  to  duty  as  a  grand  juror,  or  to  serve  on  juries 
for  the  trial  of  issues,  in  either  the  quarter-sessions  or 
civil  court. 

Part  IX  is  concerned  with  the  police.  It  authorizes 
the  council  to  appoint  a  committee  from  its  own  num- 
ber who,  with  the  mayor,  shall  be  the  "  watch  com- 
mittee," and  control  police  affairs.  The  committee 


36 

CHAP.  ii.  appoints  policemen  (borough  constables),  and  makes 
regulations  for  the  service.  The  absolute  power  of 
dismissal  is  in  the  hands  of  the  committee,  but  any 
two  justices  who  have  jurisdiction  in  the  borough  may 

control,  suspend  a  policeman.  The  intent  of  the  Code  is  to 
vest  full  police  authority  in  the  council,  to  be  exer- 
cised by  a  large  committee,  generally  consisting  of 
one  member  from  each  ward,  with  the  mayor  as  an  ex- 
officio  member,  and  presumably  chairman. 

The  next  portion  of  the  act  relates  to  the  privileges 
of  "  freemen,"  and  is  designed  to  protect  certain  rights 
of  individuals  existing  prior  to  1835.  It  has  no  prac- 
tical significance.  Part  XI  is  devoted  to  the  granting 
of  municipal  charters.  This  right  has  always  been, 
and  still  is,  exercised  as  a  prerogative  of  the  Crown; 
but  there  is  nothing  arbitrary  in  the  methods  that  are 
pursued.  Any  populous  place  that  desires  to  become 
incorporated  as  a  municipality  petitions  the  Queen, 
notifying  the  County  Council  and  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board.  The  Privy  Council  hears  the  facts,  and 
if  the  petition  can  properly  be  granted,  a  charter  is 
issued  which  defines  the  boundaries  and  ward  divis- 
ions of  the  new  municipal  borough,  and  which  places 
it  under  the  provisions  of  the  Municipal  Corporations 
Act.  Part  XII  of  the  Code  is  entitled  "  Legal  Pro- 
ceedings," and  while  highly  important  in  practical  ad- 
ministration, it  involves  no  principles  that  require 
explanation  here.  The  final  portion  of  the  act  is  de- 
voted to  many  miscellaneous  topics,  none  of  which 
bear  importantly  upon  the  general  character  of  the 
municipal  constitution. 

The  great  statute  of  1888,  known  as  the  Local  Gov- 

Locai  GOV-    ernment  Act,  had  chiefly  to  do  with  the  giving  of  rep- 

ernmentAct,  *  3    .  _  . 

1888.  resentative  councils  to  the  English  counties;  and  its 
provisions  affect  at  few  points,  and  not  vitally  at  any, 
the  scheme  of  government  provided  in  the  Municipal 


THE  EISE  OF  BEITISH  TOWNS  37 

Code  of  1882.  The  enactment  of  1888  does,  however,  CHAP.  n. 
specifically  provide  that  cities  and  towns  having  50,- 
000  inhabitants  shall  be  distinct  counties  for  admin- 
istrative purposes,  the  municipal  councils  assuming 
all  duties  which  would  otherwise  devolve  upon  county 
councils.  The  special  result  achieved  for  municipal 
government  by  the  act  of  1888  was  in  the  separate 
treatment  of  the  metropolis,  which  was  erected  into 
the  administrative  County  of  London  and  given  an 
elected  County  Council  whose  functions  are  in  many 
respects  analogous  to  those  of  the  municipal  councils  council, 
possessed  by  the  other  great  towns,  and  which  will  in 
due  time  acquire  the  full  range  of  municipal  author- 
ity and  privilege.  But  this  subject  will  find  place  in 
the  chapter  devoted  especially  to  the  government  of 
London.  Other  general  enactments  since  1882  have 
affected  in  some  respects  the  details  of  municipal  gov- 
ernment, but  they  have  had  to  do  far  more  extensively 
with  the  ever-expanding  functions  and  undertakings 
than  with  the  essential  nature  or  structure  of  the  town 
corporations. 


I.— 3* 


I 


CHAPTER    III 
THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION 

"T  has  been  a  comparatively  easy  task  to  describe 
the  British  municipal  system  as  it  stands  to-day, 
written  in  the  law  of  the  land.  To  describe  it,  or 
some  parts  of  it,  in  actual  operation  in  the  large 
towns  is  more  difficult,  but  also  more  profitable.  It 
is  especially  true  of  British  institutions  that  they 
are  to  be  examined  in  their  practical  workings  rather 
than  in  their  theoretical  aspects.  The  first  question 
to  be  asked  and  answered  in  an  inquiry  on  the  ground 
The  fran-  into  the  character  of  municipal  government  would  re- 
practice,  late  to  the  franchise.  The  essence  of  British  munici- 
pal reform  has  consisted  of  the  investiture  of  all 
authority  in  a  council,  which  has  been  made  directly 
representative  of  a  burgess  body  Mminally  composed 
of  all  the  householders.  It  is  imfjpt^  to  ascertain 
what  limitations  in  practice  there  may  be  upon  the 
exercise  of  the  elective  franchise.  At  the  risk  of  a 
slightly  tedious  explanation,  let  me  proceed  to  some 
analysis  of  the  electorate. 

While  the  general  course  of  the  franchise  in  Great 
Britain  has  been  toward  freedom  and  popularity,  it  is 
as  yet  so  full  of  anomalies  and  distinctions  that  the 
citizen  who  can  explain  it  is  exceptional ;  and  the  for- 
eign inquirer  must  be  diligent  and  alert,  or  some  im- 
portant proviso  or  detail  will  escape  his  notice.  For 
purposes  of  illustration  let  us  begin  with  Glasgow — 

38 


THE  BRITISH   SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION 


39 


the  largest  municipal  corporation  in  the  British  em-  CHAP.  in. 
pire,  "greater  London"  not  having  as  yet  attained  a 
unified  corporate  existence.  The  qualified  voters  of  electorates. 
Glasgow  go  to  the  polls  at  various  times  to  elect  (1) 
members  of  Parliament,  (2)  members  of  the  town 
council,  (3)  school-boards,  (4)  parochial  boards  for  the 
care  of  the  poor  and  for  other  administrative  work, 
and  (5)  members  of  the  Clyde  Navigation  Trust.  For 
each  of  these  purposes  the  franchise  is  different. 
The  parliamentary  list  includes  male  householders  tary  voters. 
who  have  lived  within  the  limits  of  the  town  a  year, 
have  paid  their  rates,  and  have  received  no  relief  from 
the  parochial  authorities.  This  list  also  admits  lodgers 
who  occupy  quarters  worth  £10  a  year.  It  also  in- 
cludes all  occupiers  of  non-residence  property,  pro- 
vided they  live  within  seven  miles  and  provided  the 
premises  are  worth  £10  a  year.  Finally  it  includes 
owners  of  town  property  worth  £10  a  year,  provided 
they  reside  within  seven  miles  of  the  limits.  But 
there  are  several  parliamentary  constituencies — or 
districts,  as  we  should  say — in  any  large  town,  and 
a  man  who  owns  property  in  the  different  constitu- 
encies has  a  vote  in  each.  Thus  one  man  may  have 
a  number  of  parliamentary  votes,  though  he  may  not 
cumulate  them,  but  must  visit  the  different  districts 
where  he  is  enrolled  as  a  property-owner.  The  roll 
of  municipal  voters  is  the  same  as  the  parliamentary 
roll,  with  the  important  exception  that  women  who 
are  occupiers  and  ratepayers  are  allowed  to  vote,  and 
with  the  further  qualification  that  no  man  may  vote 
in  more  than  one  ward,  no  matter  how  large  an  owner 
in  other  wards  he  may  be.  Very  different  still  is  the 
voting  system  for  the  election  of  parochial  boards — 
all  Scotland  being  divided  into  parishes,  and  Glasgow 
comprising  three.  The  size  of  the  board  varies  with 
the  population  of  the  parish;  but  we  will  take  for 


Municipal 
voters. 


40 


MUNICIPAL  GOVEKNMENT  IN  GREAT  BEITAIN 


CHAP.  III. 


Parochial 
voters. 


Plural  vot- 
ing non- 
cumulative 
for  parish 
boards. 


School  vo- 
ters —  the 
cumulative 
plan. 


illustration  a  large  city  parish  of  200,000  people,  that 
has  a  board  of  twenty-five  members.  The  entire 
board  is  renewed  annually,  five  members  being  chosen 
in  each  one  of  five  subdivisions  or  "parish  wards" 
(not  to  be  confounded  with  the  municipal  wards). 
Poor-rates  in  Scotland  are  divided  between  owner  and 
occupier,  and  the  voting  is  based  upon  the  ratepay- 
ment.  The  ratable  property  in  the  particular  parish 
I  am  citing  for  illustration  is  owned,  let  us  say,  by 
5000  persons,  and  occupied  by  45,000  tenants  and 
their  families.  The  owners  and  the  occupiers  alike 
are  entitled  to  from  one  to  six  votes  apiece,  according 
to  the  value  upon  which  they  pay  rates.  All  who  pay 
on  a  yearly  value  of  £20  or  less  have  a  single  vote, 
while  all  who  pay  on  £500  or  more  have  six  votes,  the 
values  between  £20  and  £500  being  graded,  and  en- 
titling the  ratepayers  to  two,  three,  four,  or  five  votes. 
Ratepaying  is  the  sole  qualification,  and  residence  and 
allegiance  are  immaterial.  Let  it  be  noted  that  the 
parochial  vote  is  non-cumulative.  That  is,  if  A  has 
six  votes,  and  there  are  five  men  to  be  elected,  he  may 
cast  six  votes,  and  no  more  or  no  less,  for  each  man 
he  votes  for — and  he  may  vote  for  five,  although  he 
may  restrict  himself  to  a  smaller  number  if  he  chooses. 
Women  ratepayers,  of  course,  are  parochial  electors. 
And  now  as  to  the  school-board  franchise :  all  persons 
are  school-board  electors  who  are  on  the  assessor's 
valuation  roll  for  £4  and  upward,  that  is,  who  are 
either  owners  or  occupiers  of  property  of  the  annual 
value  of  £4.  The  entire  school-board  retires  every 
three  years,  and  the  new  board  is  elected  upon  a  gen- 
eral ticket,  with  the  cumulative  plan.  The  Glasgow 
board  numbers  fifteen;  and  from  all  the  persons  nom- 
inated the  voter  may  select  fifteen,  or  he  may  bestow 
fifteen  votes  upon  one  candidate,  or  he  may  apportion 
the  fifteen  votes  as  he  likes  among  two  or  more  nomi- 


THE  BEITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPEEATION  41 

nees.     The  electorate  for  the  Clyde  Navigation  Trust    CHAP.  in. 
needs  no  further  explanation  than  this,  that  it  is  lim- 
ited, so  far  as  the  ratepayers  are  concerned,  to  those 
whose  valuation  exceeds  £20. 

This  discussion  of  the  franchises  other  than  the 
municipal  is,  in  strictness,  a  digression ;  but  it  is  en-   which  eie&- 

'-  .    ,  torate  is 

tirely  germane  to  our  main  purpose.  Which  of  these  largest? 
electorates  is  the  broadest  and  most  popular?  The 
reader  will  naturally  think  it  to  be  the  municipal, 
which  differs  from  the  parliamentary  by  its  inclusion 
of  women,  while  it  also  includes  the  humble  occupiers 
of  premises  valued  at  less  than  £4  who  are  excluded 
from  the  school-board  electorate.  But  in  practical 
effect  the  school-board  franchise  is  the  broadest  of  all, 
and  this  because  it  does  not  require  that  the  rates  shall 
have  been  actually  paid.  Rates  are  levied  upon  all 
householders;  and  for  the  exercise  of  the  municipal 
and  parliamentary  franchises  it  is  requisite  that  those 
rates  shall  have  been  paid  at  a  date  some  months 
prior  to  the  elections.  The  £4  clause  in  the  school 
law  really  disfranchises  almost  nobody  who  would 
think  of  caring  to  vote,  for  only  paupers  and  vagrants 
would  be  rent-payers  in  a  smaller  amount  than  $1.66 
per  month.  But  the  provision  that  municipal  and 
parliamentary  voters  must  have  paid  their  rates  before 
a  certain  "qualifying  date"  so  operates  as  to  keep  A  sweeping 
about  fifty  thousand  householders  off  the  registration  18qtlon.  ^ 
roll  which  it  is  the  business  of  the  Glasgow  assessor 
and  his  canvassers  to  make  up  every  year.  This  is 
a  very  important  fact.  The  Glasgow  parliamentary 
voters'  roll  in  1891  included  78,738  names.  The  muni- 
cipal roll  simply  added  the  names  of  15,448  women, 
making  a  total  municipal  registration  of  94,186.  But 
the  number  of  enrolled  school-board  electors  in  1891 
was  141,152,  while  the  census  of  1891  found  126,422 
separate  families  living  in  Glasgow.  Thus,  while  the 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  III. 

One  third  of 
the  Glasgow 
house-hold- 
ers practi- 
cally non- 
voting. 


Scotch 
slums  self- 
disfran- 
chised. 


Wholly  dif- 
ferent in 
England. 


municipal  franchise  is  theoretically  and  apparently 
broader  than  the  school  franchise,  the  registration  for 
the  latter  was  the  greater  by  47,000  voters  in  1891, 
which  amounts  to  an  excess  of  exactly  50  per  ceut! 
At  least  one  third  of  the  householders  and  theoretical 
voters  of  Glasgow  never  appear  on  the  municipal  or 
parliamentary  registration  lists.  Their  enrolment  as 
school-board  voters  is  involuntary.  The  slums  evade 
the  tax-collector  and  sacrifice  the  franchise.  House- 
hold enfranchisement  in  the  Scotch  towns  therefore 
means,  in  reality,  ratepayers'  enfranchisement.  It  is 
a  significant  thing  that  the  whole  body  of  men  who 
are  ignorant,  vicious,  and  irresponsible  is  practically 
outside  the  pale  of  politics  in  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh, 
Dundee  and  Aberdeen. 

If  the  stranger  happens  to  have  examined  municipal 
institutions  in  Glasgow  or  Edinburgh  before  prosecut- 
ing his  inquiries  in  the  large  English  towns,  supposing 
also  that  he  has  preferred  to  observe  and  investigate 
things  on  the  ground  before  looking  closely  into  the 
distinctions  of  the  law,  he  will  probably  go  from  Scot- 
land to  Liverpool,  Manchester,  or  Birmingham  expect- 
ing to  find  that  there  also  the  ratepaying  qualification 
— which  he  knows  is  existent  there  as  well  as  in  the 
North  —  will  operate  to  diminish  the  burgess  roll.  In 
Glasgow  it  makes  the  roll  vastly  smaller  than  the 
number  of  householders,  and  it  has  the  same  effect  in 
Edinburgh.  But  in  point  of  fact  it  has  no  such  con- 
sequences in  the  English  towns,  for  a  reason  that  is 
very  readily  explained.  In  Scotland,  rates  are  divided 
between  owner  and  occupier,  and  are  collected  directly 
and  separately  from  each.  Collection  from  the  poorer 
sort  of  tenants  in  the  great  towns  is  a  very  difficult 
matter.  In  England  the  agitation  for  such  division 
of  rates  is  as  yet  unsuccessful,  and  the  entire  burden 
falls  upon  the  occupier.  But  a  number  of  years  ago 


THE  BEITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPEEATION  43 

the  extreme  difficulty  of  collecting  from  the  occupants    CHAP.  in. 
of  small  tenements  was  met  by  the  adoption  of  a  plan 
of  composition  with  the  landlords,  by  which  they  ad-     HOW  Pre- 
vance  the  rates  on  all  tenements  of  less  than  £10  value,  r*imiiordsy 
whether  actually  occupied  or  not,  and  get  a  discount  voting  lists. 
of  30  per  cent.    They  collect  from  their  tenants  by 
charging  these  public  rates  into  the  rents.    All  the 
householders  who  are  thus  arranged  for  consequently 
find  their  names  upon  the  parliamentary  and  muni- 
cipal rolls  j    and  the  defection  among  the  class  of 
tenants  occupying  houses  worth  £10  or  more,  while 
considerable,  is  not  enough  to  make  the  ratepaying 
qualification  affect  the  registration  lists  in  any  such 
vital  manner  as  in  Scotland.    I  find  in  Birmingham 
about  95,500  inhabited  houses,  and  the  burgess  roll 
contains  92,700  names.     Of  these,  11,600  are  women, 
leaving  81,100  parliamentary  voters.     Leeds  is  fairly 
representative,  with  78,000  inhabited  houses,  67,500 
municipal  and  57,600  parliamentary  voters. 

In  comparing  the  English  franchise  with  the  Ameri- 
can, the  practical  exclusion  of  unmarried  men  is  to  be 
taken  into  account  as  an  item  of  great  importance. 
Here  again  the  actual  working  of  the  British  system 
is  not  to  be  inferred  from  the  law.  The  so-called 
lodgers'  franchise  (parliamentary)  gives  a  vote  to  men 
who  occupy  apartments  worth  £10  a  year.  The  num- 
ber of  young  men  in  any  American  city  who  occupy 
lodgings  at  a  rent  of  $4  a  month  would  constitute  a 
very  considerable  element  of  the  voting  strength,  and 
I  should  not  hesitate  to  estimate  it  as  high  as  15  per 
cent.  In  many  American  cities  it  is  certainly  a  much 
larger  proportion  than  that,  in  some  cases  reaching  30 
or  35  per  cent.  Young  men  of  this  class  are  not,  per- 
haps, so  numerous  in  the  English  towns,  but  that  they 
form  a  very  large  element  of  the  population  is  obvi- 
ous. One  may  well  be  surprised,  therefore,  at  the  net 


44 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  III. 


Exclusion  of 
unmarried 
men  from 
municipal 

voting  lists. 


Occupants 
of  small 

shops 
admitted. 


results  of  the  lodgers'  franchise.  The  parliamentary 
borough  of  Birmingham,  several  years  ago,  out  of  a 
registration  of  72,000,  had  only  about  400  "  lodgers  " 
on  the  list,  where  one  might  have  expected  to  find  ten 
or  twenty  times  as  many.  Manchester  in  1894  had 
1086  enrolled  lodger  voters  in  a  parliamentary  roll  of 
64,227.  And  Glasgow,  with  scores  of  thousands  of  un- 
married men  above  the  voting  age,  has  only  about  one 
thousand  of  them  on  the  voting  roll  as  "  lodgers."  In 
Scotland  the  qualified  lodgers  have  also  the  municipal 
franchise.  In  England  they  have  only  the  parliamen- 
tary. But  in  both  countries  they  are  obliged  to  appear 
and  make  good  their  claim  at  each  annual  revision 
of  the  registration  lists ;  and  this  may  mean  a  delay 
of  hours  in  the  court  of  a  "  revising  barrister."  The 
other  classes  of  voters  are  put  and  kept  on  the  lists 
in  spite  of  themselves  in  practice  if  not  in  law.  But 
the  lodger  in  English  cities  is  in  effect  disfranchised 
by  the  burdensome  conditions  that  attach  to  his  re- 
gistration as  a  parliamentary  voter,  and  has  never 
been  admitted  at  all  to  the  burgess  or  municipal 
suffrage. 

The  municipal  franchise  has  remained  substantially 
unchanged  since  the  "  household "  extension  of  1868, 
the  more  recently  granted  "  service  "  franchise  affect- 
ing the  parliamentary  enrolment  only.  But  this,  like 
the  lodgers'  list,  turns  out  a  very  insignificant  thing  in 
practice,  adding  only  a  few  hundreds  of  names  to  the 
parliamentary  enrolment  of  a  borough  of  half  a  mil- 
lion people. 

There  is  another  class  of  municipal  voters  in  the 
English  towns  of  which  account  should  be  made.  It 
is  the  class  of  men  who  are  occupiers  of  small  shops 
worth  less  than  £10  a  year,  and  who  are  not  qualified 
to  vote  as  householders.  The  occupation  of  shops  or 
business  premises  worth  £10  entitles  to  the  parliamen- 


THE  BEITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION  45 

tary  vote,  while  for  municipal  purposes  this  limit  is  CHAP,  in 
wholly  removed.  In  Birmingham  there  are  large  num- 
bers of  mechanics  who  occupy  diminutive  shops  or 
work-stalls  to  which  power  is  distributed  from  a  com- 
mon center,  and  who  pay  very  trifling  rents.  Several 
thousand  of  them  are  on  the  municipal  or  "  burgess  " 
roll.  Not  to  prolong  my  discussion  of  these  exasper- 
ating distinctions,  it  may  simply  be  stated  that  the 
municipal  enrolment  in  English  towns  will  average 
about  twenty  per  cent,  larger  than  the  parliamen- 
tary, and  that  the  difference  is  accounted  for  chiefly 
by  the  municipal  enfranchisement  of  women  who  are 
ratepayers. 

To  make  comparison  again  with  the  American  elec-   . 

r  °  Comparison 

torate,  which  includes  all  male  citizens  of  legal  age,  with  Ameri- 

,  ..-IT  i  .can  electo- 

the  English  municipal  electorate  excludes  in  practice  rate, 
nearly  all  the  unmarried  men,  all  floating  laborers 
and  lodging-house  sleepers,  and  nearly  all  the  serving 
class.  Furthermore,  in  judging  of  the  political  effects 
of  the  extension  of  the  franchise  to  the  humblest  house- 
holders, it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  exploitation 
of  the  votes  of  the  ignorant,  vicious,  and  indifferent  in 
English  cities  by  demagogues  or  party  agents  is  so  ex- 
tremely difficult  that  it  does  not  count  for  anything  at 
all  in  election  results.  The  extraordinarily  severe  laws 
against  briberv,  direct  and  indirect,  apply  to  muni-  British  poll- 

.       ,      ,         .  ....  .  MI  ticiansdo 

cipal  elections ;  and  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  get  a    not  exploit 
British  voter  to  the  polls  who  does  not  contemplate       vote. 
the  contest  with  some  glimmering  of  interest  and  in- 
telligence.   In  Scotch  towns  the  slums  do  not  vote 
because  they  evade  the  rate-collector  and  are  not  re- 
gistered.   In  English  towns,  although  registered  by 
canvassers,  they  do  not  care  about  voting,  and  are 
a  neglected  field  so  far  as  political  missionary  work 
goes.    The  organized  working-men  vote,  of  course; 
and  they  seem  to  vote  with  more  intelligent  and  dis- 


46 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  III. 


Women  in 
municipal 
elections. 


Structure 

of  the 

council. 


Easy  mode 
of  nomina- 
tions. 


tinct  purpose  than  any  other  class  in  the  community. 
Of  the  women  ratepayers  nothing  is  to  be  said  except 
that  their  voting  is  variable,  sometimes  being  high  in 
proportion  to  their  numbers,  and  sometimes  low,  de- 
pending upon  their  interest  in  particular  candidates 
or  special  issues.  Their  disposition  to  espouse  party 
causes  seems  very  marked,  but  it  is  not  to  be  relied 
upon  as  unthinking  or  as  oblivious  of  the  qualities  of 
candidates.  Obviously,  the  franchise  needs  simplifi- 
cation, although  for  municipal  purposes  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  see  what  desirable  end  would  be  gained  by 
changing  the  principle  from  that  of  a  household  fran- 
chise to  a  personal  one.  No  public  or  private  inter- 
ests require  the  participation  in  municipal  elections  of 
unattached  or  floating  elements  of  the  population. 

The  largest  English  towns  are  as  a  rule  divided  into 
sixteen  wards,  each  of  which  sends  three  members  to 
the  council  for  terms  of  three  years,  one  councilor  being 
elected  in  each  ward  every  year.  The  council  of  such 
towns  further  contains  sixteen  aldermen,  who  sit  for 
terms  of  six  years  and  who  are  chosen  by  the  council  it- 
self, making  a  total  body  of  sixty-four.  The  mayor  is 
elected  by  the  council.  The  "burgesses,"  or  registered 
citizens,  have  therefore  no  ordinary  direct  responsi- 
bility in  municipal  government  except  for  the  choice 
of  one  councilor  in  each  ward  on  the  first  of  Novem- 
ber of  every  year. 

The  English  methods  of  nomination  and  balloting 
as  applied  to  parliamentary  elections  have  attracted 
no  little  attention  in  the  United  States ;  but  the  work- 
ing of  these  methods,  and  their  advantages  in  munici- 
pal affairs,  have  not  become  so  familiar  to  American 
readers.  Let  me  first  state  the  essential  features  of 
the  nominating  system.  At  least  nine  days  before 
the  election,  the  town  clerk  causes  notices  to  be  con- 


THE  BEITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION 


spicuously  published,  explaining  what  vacancies  are  CHAP.  HI. 
to  occur  and  how  the  nominations  are  to  be  made. 
The  names  of  candidates  must  be  left  at  the  clerk's 
office,  inscribed  upon  official  blanks,  a  week  before 
the  election.  Accompanying  each  name  must  be  the 
signature  of  a  "proposer,"  a  "seconder,"  and  eight 
other  citizens.  Only  such  persons  as  have  been  nom- 
inated in  this  way  may  be  voted  for.  Nominations 
being  all  in,  the  list  is  at  once  printed  and  conspicu- 
ously bulletined.  The  announcement  contains  the  full 
names, residences  (street  and  number),  and  occupations 
of  the  nominees,  and  the  names  of  the  proposer  and 
seconder  in  each  case.  If  only  one  nomination  has 
been  made  in  any  ward,  the  nomination  is  itself  the 
election,  and  the  polls  will  not  be  opened  in  that  ward. 
This  is  a  good  and  sensible  system  upon  its  face ;  but 
experience  alone  can  tell  us  how  any  piece  of  political 
machinery  will  actually  work.  Ought  this  system  to 
be  productive  of  many  nominations  or  of  few  ?  The 
most  natural  inference  would  seem  to  be  that  its 
adoption  would  increase  the  number  of  candidates, 
since  any  ten  men  may  secure  for  an  eleventh  man, 
without  expense,  the  official  announcement  of  candi- 
dacy and  the  placing  of  the  candidate's  name  upon 
the  ballot-papers. 

But  this  inference  is  not  justified  by  the  facts.  In 
recent  municipal  elections,  although  party  issues  have 
been  introduced  to  a  quite  unprecedented  extent  and 
the  number  of  ward  contests  has  been  materially 
increased  by  the  unwonted  employment  of  the  occa- 
sion for  a  testing  of  strength  on  the  Home  Rule  ques- 
tion, it  is  nevertheless  true  that  contests  have  been 
confined  to  a  minority  of  the  wards,  taking  all  the 
towns  together.  This  must  seem  to  the  American  ob- 
server a  remarkable  state  of  things.  It  means  that, 
in  a  majority  of  the  wards,  public  opinion  had  in  ad- 


The  system 
does  not 
multiply 

candidates. 


48 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  in.  vance  agreed  so  decisively  upon  a  particular  man  that 
nobody  was  nominated  against  him,  and  the  entire  ex- 
Manyuncon-  pense  and  distraction  of  a  contest  at  the  polls  was 
tions.  thus  obviated.  Closer  inquiry  will  reveal  the  fact 
that  by  far  the  greater  number  of  these  cases  have  to 
do  with  the  reelection  of  men  already  in  the  council. 
There  is  every  year  a  considerable  list  of  towns  which, 
in  spite  of  the  exceptionally  acute  condition  of  party 
feeling  throughout  the  country,  renew  one  third  of 
their  councilors  without  a  single  ward  contest,  all  the 
new  members  obtaining  their  seats  by  virtue  of  un- 
opposed nominations.  There  were  not  less  than  fifty 
such  fortunate  towns  in  November,  1893.  These  are 
not  often  the  large  towns,  though  I  happened  to  note 
among  them  on  one  occasion  such  examples  as  Roches- 
ter, Windsor,  Colchester,  Lincoln,  Newark,  Taunton, 
Burton-on-Trent,  Reading,  Halifax,  and  other  places 
of  from  ten  thousand  to  seventy-five  thousand  people. 
In  Cambridge,  Salisbury,  Derby,  Worcester,  Great 
Yarmouth,  Plymouth,  Cardiff,  Newcastle-on-Tyne, 

Frequency  Wrexham,  Carnarvon,  and  several  other  places,  there 
were  contests  in  only  one  ward.  Except  for  contests 
in  two  wards  each,  all  nominations  were  equivalent 
to  elections  in  Bristol,  Oxford,  Winchester,  Coventry, 
Sunderland,  Stockton-on-Tees,  Weymouth,  Durham, 
and  several  other  towns.  When  it  is  remembered 
that  Bristol  is  an  active  commercial  city  of  a  quarter- 
million  population,  it  is  decidedly  interesting  to  learn 
that  it  can  choose  councilors  from  fourteen  out  of  six- 
teen wards  by  unanimous  consent  and  without  the 
work  and  cost  of  holding  an  election,  while  its  stirring 
and  growing  rival,  Cardiff,  escapes  with  only  one  con- 
tested ward.  By  way  of  comparison  it  should  be 
added  that  in  November,  1893,  six  of  Bristol's  sixteen 
wards,  and  four  of  Cardiff's  ten  wards,  were  contested. 
Referring  again  to  notes  of  an  election  several  years 


and  Cardiff, 


THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION 


49 


ago,  I  find  that  even  in  the  eighteen  great  wards  of 
Manchester  there  were  only  three  contests,  those  turn- 
ing upon  political  issues  chiefly,  while  in  Liverpool 
there  were  but  six  contests.  The  party  men  pretended 
to  fight  the  Liverpool  contests  upon  strictly  politi- 
cal lines  ;  but  the  situation  seems  to  have  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  "  ratepayers'  association,"  composed  of 
men  who  advocated  municipal  economy  and  ignored 
party  lines  in  local  affairs. 

The  most  numerous  and  exciting  contests  of  that 
year  occurred  in  the  great  inland  towns  of  the  Mid- 
lands and  the  North,  that  have  long  been  the  home  of 
advanced  Liberalism,  and  where  the  Liberals  have  here- 
tofore maintained  a  large  preponderance  of  strength 
in  the  municipal  councils.  It  is  in  these  towns  that 
the  split  in  the  Liberal  party  is  most  keenly  felt  ;  and 
the  municipal  elections  of  that  November  were  made 
a  series  of  battles  between  the  Liberals  and  the  Con- 
servatives as  reenforced  by  the  Dissentients.  Bir- 
mingham was  the  chief  point  of  interest,  and  contests 
were  waged  in  nine  of  the  sixteen  wards.  In  eight  of 
the  nine  wards  the  retiring  members  were  candidates 
for  reelection,  and  in  six  of  the  eight  cases  they  were 
successful.  Thus,  although  in  Birmingham  that  mu- 
nicipal election  was  probably  unprecedented  for  the 
number  and  severity  of  its  contests,  the  next  council 
contained  only  three  new  men.  Thirteen  out  of  six- 
teen retiring  councilors  were  reflected  —  seven  of  them 
without  opposition.  In  Leeds  there  were  five  contests, 
the  town  having  sixteen  wards,  and  the  issues  in  every 
case  were  political.  Curiously  enough,  a  sixth  con- 
test was  averted  by  the  oversight  of  the  Liberals,  who 
failed  to  file  a  nomination-paper  for  their  expected 
candidate,  the  retiring  member.  The  result  of  this 
inadvertence  was  that  a  Conservative  stepped  into  the 
place  without  a  contest.  The  Bradford  politicians 

I.—  4 


CHAP.  in. 


Manchester 
and  Liver- 
pool. 


A  Birming- 
ham in- 
stance. 


In  Leeds, 
Bradford, 
Sheffield, 
and  other 
towns. 


60 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  in. 


,   A  . 

Contests  and 

results  in 

tlic  6l6ction 

of  1893. 


'nation™ 


contested  twelve  of  fifteen  wards,  while  Nottingham 
had  nine  contests  and  Sheffield  six.  It  is  an  unusual 
year  when  Glasgow  or  Edinburgh  has  more  than  four 
or  five  ward  contests  ;  and  there,  as  in  all  the  British 
towns,  a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  contests 
occur  when  retiring  councilors  decline  to  stand  for 
reelection. 

Manchester  has  lately  been  enlarged,  and  has  now 

* 

twenty-five  wards,  in  seventeen  of  which  there  were 
contests  on  November  1,  1893.  In  twelve  of  these 
wards  the  retiring  members  were  actually  reflected, 
and  only  two  who  were  candidates  for  another  term 
were  defeated.  Thus  in  a  council  of  104  members, 
the  election  made  barely  half  a  dozen  changes.  In 
1893  Birmingham's  wards,  eighteen  in  number,  wit- 
nessed only  six  contests,  these  being  waged  upon  lo- 
cal and  municipal  rather  than  upon  party  lines.  This 
was  a  milder  municipal  season  than  usual  for  Birming- 
ham ;  but  in  Leeds,  fourth  in  size  of  the  great  English 
towns,  there  was  a  trial  of  strength  on  national  po- 
litical lines,  and  fifteen  wards  out  of  sixteen  were  con- 
tested. In  Liverpool,  also,  the  party  men  invaded  the 
municipal  field  and  contested  twelve  of  the  sixteen 
wards.  In  Sheffield,  on  the  other  hand,  there  were 
only  three  contested  wards,  in  Nottingham  only  six  of 
sixteen,  in  Huddersfield  only  three  of  thirteen,  and  in 
Hull,  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  and  "Wolverhamptori  —  all 
large  places  —  the  elections  went  practically  by  de- 
fault. In  a  number  of  large  towns  of  from  25,000  to 
100,000  people,  the  contested  wards  were  not  more  than 
half  of  the  whole  number. 

As  regards  nominations  by  third  parties  or  special 
interests,  on  e  might  well  expect  to  find  them  more 
numerous  than  they  are.  In  only  one  of  the  nine  con- 
tested Birmingham  wards,  at  the  election  already  re- 
ferred to,  were  there  more  than  two  nominations.  In 


THE  BEITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION  51 

the  one  ward  there  were  four,  the  Socialists  having  a  CHAP.  in. 
candidate,  and  a  fourth  man  standing  as  an  Indepen- 
dent. In  one  of  the  Leeds  wards  there  were  three  can- 
didates, as  was  also  the  case  in  one  of  the  Manchester 
wards.  In  only  two  of  the  seventeen  contested  Man- 
chester wards  of  1893  was  there  a  third-party  Labor 
candidate.  Taking  the  elections  of  1893  as  a  whole, 
the  number  of  Socialist  and  Labor  candidates  making 
three  contestants  on  the  ward  ballot-paper  was  greater 
than  in  previous  years.  But  at  best  the  triangular 
contests  are  exceptional  rather  than  common.1 

The  preliminary  selection  of  party  candidates  usually 
rests  with  ward  committees,  candidature  being  accepted    part    o]. 
and  ratified  by  the  voters  in  open  ward  meetings,  where  tics  m  muni- 
municipal  questions  are  discussed.     The  American       «ons. 
primary  election  or  party  caucus  system  is  quite  un- 
known, and  in  ordinary  cases  the  distinctions  of  party 
are  not  strenuously  emphasized.    The  councilor  from 
a  decidedly  Liberal  ward  is  likely  to  be  a  Liberal ;  but 
he  is  in  most  cases  as  entirely  acceptable,  so  far  as 

1  The  municipal  elections  of  November  1,  1894,  were  marked 
chiefly  by  the  increased  aggressiveness  of  the  Independent-Labor 
and  Socialist  groups,  which  presented  candidates  in  various  ™  , 
towns  where  otherwise  there  would  have  been  few  contests  or  tionsofiS94. 
none  at  all.  This  was  the  case  in  Liverpool,  where  it  was  agreed 
between  the  two  regular  parties  not  to  contest  a  single  ward. 
The  Labor  party  precipitated  conflicts  in  five  wards,  though  all 
their  candidates  were  defeated.  In  Birmingham  old  political 
lines  were  drawn  in  six  wards,  while  twelve  escaped  without  any 
contests  whatever.  In  seventeen  of  Manchester's  twenty-five 
wards  there  were  no  contests ;  but  the  Labor  party  won  two  out 
of  eight  disputed  seats.  The  Labor  men  contested  six  wards  in 
Bradford,  without  success.  In  Salford  and  Bolton,  as  in  Liver- 
pool and  Bradford,  harmony  was  disturbed  by  numerous  Labor 
candidates,  none  of  whom  were  successful.  Leeds  had  fourteen 
contests,  Nottingham  eleven,  Huddersfield  and  Leicester  each 
eight,  Rochdale  seven,  Oldham  six,  Bristol  four,  Sheffield  three, 
many  towns  only  one  or  two,  and  at  least  fifty  places  none  at 
all. 


52 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  III. 


Freedom  of 
nomination 
a  constant 
safeguard. 


municipal  matters  are  concerned,  to  the  Conservatives 
as  to  the  Liberals,  and  he  will  never  in  any  case  be 
opposed  by  a  nominee  of  the  other  party  who  is 
brought  forward  for  the  sole  purpose  of  maintaining 
party  organization  in  the  ward.  An  Englishman  is 
not  often  willing  to  be  put  up  for  a  place  merely  to  be 
sacrificed.  The  extension  of  the  franchise  is  resulting 
in  more  elaborate  and  more  democratic  forms  of  party 
organization  in  England  j  and  it  is  not  unlikely  that 
the  future  may  see  party  lines  more  closely  drawn  in 
municipal  elections  than  they  have  been  up  to  the 
present  time — a  prospect  not  by  any  means  welcome. 

Meanwhile,  however,  the  freedom  of  nomination  is 
a  great  safeguard.  So  long  as  ten  citizens  of  a  ward 
can  place  a  candidate  on  the  official  voting-paper, 
there  is  no  great  danger  from  party  machinery.  It  is 
the  nominating  even  more  than  the  balloting  features 
of  the  English  and  Australian  systems  that  deserve 
American  attention,  and  we  have  unduly  emphasized 
the  official  ballot. 

The  English  voting  machinery  is  perhaps  sufficiently 
well  known.  The  overseers  of  the  poor  in  the  several 
parishes,  who  are  the  rating  officers,  are  also  the  re- 
On  the  1st  of  August  of  each 
year,  copies  of  the  new  list  of  electors  are  posted  upon 
the  doors  of  all  churches  and  chapels  and  public  build- 
ings, and  they  must  be  kept  exposed  for  a  period 
including  two  Sundays.  The  party  agents  are  par- 
ticularly minute  in  their  scrutiny  of  the  lists.  Before 
the  20th  of  August,  all  claims  and  objections  must  be 
filed  with  the  parish  authorities,  who  make  out  a  list 
of  them  and  post  copies  of  it  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  original  lists  and  for  the  same  length  of  time. 
The  claims  and  objections  are  then  submitted  to  a 
revising  barrister  appointed  by  the  High  Court,  who 
sits  in  open  court  and  passes  upon  them  one  by 


Registration 

system,      gistration  authorities. 


THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION 


53 


one.  The  list  thus  revised  is  ready  for  the  November 
election. 

The  voter  at  the  polls  receives  a  ticket  upon  which 
are  printed  the  names  of  the  candidates.  The  ticket 
is  torn  from  a  book  which  retains  a  counterfoil  or 
stub,  upon  which  is  written  the  registration  number 
of  the  person  voting.  The  voter  is  instructed  to  take 
the  ticket  into  an  alcove,  where  he  will  find  pencils, 
and  to  mark  a  cross  in  the  blank  space  at  the  right, 
opposite  the  name  of  the  man  for  whom  he  desires  to 
vote.  He  folds  his  ticket  in  such  a  manner  as  to  ex- 
hibit the  official  mark  on  the  back,  when  he  drops  it 
into  the  box  in  the  presence  of  the  election  officers. 
His  mind  is  not  confused  with  a  multiplicity  of  issues, 
for  he  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  but  to  indicate  his 
choice  of  a  man  for  councilor  from  his  ward.  The 
municipal  election  is  kept  separate  from  all  others, 
and  this  conduces  to  wise  and  harmonious  action. 

To  be  a  member  of  an  English  town  council  is  to 
hold  a  position  of  honor — a  position  which  no  man 
affects  to  despise.  As  a  corollary,  observation,  it  is 
also  to  be  remarked  that  the  councils  are  almost  uni- 
versally in  high  repute.  Yet  if  the  stranger  asks 
whether  or  not  the  councilors  come  from  the  best 
classes  he  will  generally  be  answered  in  the  negative, 
his  informer  having  in  mind  the  English  distinctions 
which  place  tradesmen  and  manufacturers  below  the 
aristocracy  of  land-owners.  The  councilors,  as  a  rule, 
are  representatives  of  the  best  elements  of  business 
life.  They  are  men  of  intelligence  and  character,  and 
of  practical  conversance  with  affairs.  The  idea  of  rota- 
tion in  office  seems  utterly  foreign  to  the  British  mind 
except  as  regards  the  office  of  mayor.  And  that  office 
is  one  of  dignity  and  honor  rather  than  of  respon- 
sibility. The  aldermen  are  almost  invariably  chosen 
from  the  membership  of  the  council,  and  the  mayor  is 

I. -4* 


CHAP.  III. 


In  the  poll- 
ing-booth. 


Councilors 
are  repu- 
table busi- 
ness men. 


54 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  III. 


Permanence 
the  rule. 


Public  po- 
sitions in 
America  and 
England. 


Elective  of- 
fices numer- 
ous in  the 
United 
States. 


a  man  who  has  served  his  town  with  ability  and  zeal 
as  councilor  and  alderman.  No  salaries  attach  to 
these  offices,  and  by  the  common  consent  of  the  com- 
munity none  but  men  of  worth,  who  have  made  their 
way  to  a  good  standing  among  their  neighbors,  are 
regarded  as  eligible  for  the  council.  This,  of  course, 
is  an  attractive  view,  against  which  numerous  in- 
dividual facts  might  be  arrayed.  But  it  seems  to  me 
a  just  view.  The  whole  system  is  favorable  to  the 
selection  and  retention  of  capable  and  honest  men. 
Once  seated  in  the  council,  faithful  and  efficient  ser- 
vice may  reasonably  be  counted  upon  to  make  a  man's 
place  secure  from  term  to  term  for  as  long  as  he  is 
willing  to  serve,  and  he  has  before  him  the  prospect  of 
aldermanic  honors,  and  of  his  crowning  year  of  dignity 
in  the  mayor's  robes. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  moreover,  that  while  the 
honors  of  public  position  are  perhaps  nowhere  so 
highly  esteemed  as  in  Great  Britain,  the  town-coun- 
cilorships  are  the  most  important  places  in  the-  gift 
of  the  people  except  the  parliamentary  seats.  The 
difference  between  England  and  the  United  States  in 
this  respect  is  so  marked,  and  is  a  matter  of  so  much 
practical  consequence,  that  I  am  somewhat  surprised 
that  it  should  so  generally  have  escaped  attention.  In 
an  American  State,  the  legislature  affords  places  for 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  ambitious  citizens.  Then 
the  elected  executive  officers  of  the  State  are  a  consider- 
able group — governor,  lieutenant-governor,  secretary 
of  state,  auditor,  treasurer,  superintendent  of  educa- 
tion, commissioners  of  railways,  labor  statisticians, 
and  still  others  in  some  of  the  commonwealths  —  and 
there  is  a  further  group  of  appointive  offices  open  to 
politicians  of  the  same  rank  as  those  who  go  to  the 
legislature  and  fill  the  elective  offices.  The  American 
counties,  since  they  also  include  the  towns  in  their 


THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION 


55 


i»  England 

the  council 

nextm 

honor  to 

Parliament. 


jurisdiction,  —  as  county  governments  ordinarily  do    CHAP.  HI. 

not  in  England,  —  offer  another  group  of  elective  posi- 

tions to  the  same  classes  of  place-seekers  ;  for  they  all 

have  their  boards  of  commissioners  and  their  sheriffs, 

treasurers,  recorders,  clerks  of  courts,  and  auditors  to 

be  elected.    Finally,  the  city  itself  has  its  elective 

places,  the  mayoralty  included,  which  are  independent 

of  the  council  ;  and  as  a  rule  there  are  places  on  park 

boards,  police  boards,  and  other  commissions,  that  rank 

quite  as  high  in  honor  as  seats  in  the  council.    With 

all  these  other  positions  of  as  high  or  higher  rank  in  councils^"  «. 

the  common  estimation,  the  American  town  council 

competes  for  good  men  at  a  great  disadvantage.   But 

few  corresponding  places  exist  in  England  ;  and  the 

capable  citizen  with  a  taste  for  affairs  may  be  elected 

* 

an  overseer  of  the  poor  for  his  parish,  a  member  of 
his  town  school-board,  or,  last  and  greatest,  a  mem- 
ber  of  the  municipal  council.  Surely  this  condition 
of  things  affords  one  of  the  reasons  why  municipal 
government  has  more  dignity,  and  attracts  better  men 
on  the  average,  in  England  than  in  America. 

Another  reason  may,  perhaps,  be  found  in  the  fact 
that  the  English  municipalities  within  the  past  gene- 
ration  have  had  problems  of  a  more  serious  and  press- 

.  . 

ing  nature  to  deal  with  than  the  less  crowded  American 
cities  have  had,  while  they  have  also  had  a  larger  num- 
ber of  men  with  leisure  and  trained  ability  to  bestow 
upon  those  problems.  Again,  there  is  much  less  in 
the  English  system  of  municipal  organization  to  tempi 
unworthy  men  into  the  council  for  purposes  of  gain. 
There  are  no  salaries  to  receive,  and  very  remote 
chances  of  profit  through  contracts  or  jobbery  of  any 
sort.  A  high  proportion  of  the  English  councilors 
will  be  found  to  be  men  who  have  wholly  or  partly 
retired  from  the  activities  of  successful  business  life, 
who  are  glad  to  devote  their  time  to  the  affairs  of 


eminent  se- 

cures  good 

men. 


56  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  in.    their  communities,  and  whose  motives  are  as  honor- 
able as  their  sendees  are  intelligent  and  efficient. 
(  Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  councilors  are  the  fully 
>  empowered  trustees  through  whom  all  the  affairs  of 
the  municipal  corporation  are  managed.    In  Ameri- 
can cities  the  council  is  usually  limited  on  all  sides ; 
and  the  smaller  its  responsibilities,  the  less  are  its  at- 
tractions for  men  of  the  highest  fitness. 

Upon  inquiry  several  years  ago,  I  learned  that  not 

one  of  Manchester's  aldermen  had  attained  the  su- 

of°m!n'Jn\he  perior  rank  without  having  served  several  terms  as  an 

aldermanic      '-,.  .,  /-\          i      j  -i  A-  i 

rank.  ordinary  councilor.  One  had  served  continuously 
for  forty-five  years,  and  had  held  the  aldermanic  rank 
for  thirty-five.  Another  had  served  for  forty-two 
years,  another  for  thirty-seven,  another  for  thirty-two, 
another  for  twenty-seven,  seven  more  for  from  twenty 
to  twenty-four  years,  and  all  the  rest  for  from  thirteen 
to  eighteen  years.  The  ordinary  councilors  are  less 
venerable,  and  fully  half  of  them  had  come  into  the 
office  within  five  years,  while  only  ten  had  seen  ten 
years  or  more  of  continuous  service.  Great  average 
stability  is  characteristic  of  all  the  municipal  coun- 
cils of  Great  Britain,  few  of  which  are  without  their 
Nestors  of  from  twenty  to  fifty  years  of  continuous 
service. 

The  act  of  1835,  which  specified  that  the  aldermen 
Aareepr0en  should  constitute  one  fourth  of  the  whole  council,  and 
m°ciiors°un  that  they  should  be  elected  by  the  council  for  terms 
of  six  years,  made  any  burgess  eligible  for  the  posi- 
tion. It  seems  to  have  been  thought  that  the  coun- 
cilors would  go  outside  their  own  numbers,  at  least 
very  frequently,  to  choose  distinguished  and  espe- 
cially qualified  fellow-townsmen  for  aldermen  on  the 
9th  of  November  of  every  third  year,  when  half  the 
aldermanic  places  become  vacant.  But  that  expecta- 
tion was  not  realized.  It  has  come  to  be  almost  the 


THE  BEITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION  57 

universal  custom  to  promote  to  the  rank  of  aldermen,  CHAP.  in. 
when  vacancies  occur,  the  councilors  whose  service 
has  been  longest  and  most  efficient.  At  present  there 
is  one  Manchester  alderman  who  had  not  served  as  an 
elected  councilor;  but  his  case  is  a  rare  one.  An  in- 
teresting discussion  in  the  House  of  Commons,  which 
I  happened  to  hear,  on  the  question  of  aldermen  in 
the  new  county  councils,  brought  to  light  some  in- 
stances of  the  appointment  of  municipal  aldermen 
from  outside  the  council ;  but  the  general  testimony 
of  members  from  the  boroughs  who  had  especial 
knowledge  of  municipal  affairs  was  to  the  effect  that 
they  had  never  known  any  such  appointments.  The 
Liberals  argued  strongly  against  the  aldermanic  rank 
for  the  county  councils,  principally  on  the  ground 
that  it  might  enable  a  majority  greatly  to  increase 
and  perpetuate  itself.  In  some  of  the  large  towns,  it 
is  well  known  that  the  preponderating  party  in  the 
council  organizes  for  the  purpose  of  choosing  alder- 
men and  mayor,  although  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
selections  are  upon  strictly  partisan  lines.  While  the 
aldermanic  rank  has  not  been  positively  objectionable 
in  practice,  it  has  none  of  the  advantages  that  were 
anticipated  for  it,  and  is  as  needless  as  a  fifth  wheel. 
If  the  system  were  to  be  constructed  anew  in  the  light  / 
of  experience,  it  is  hardly  probable  that  provision 
would  be  made  for  any  other  class  of  councilors  than 
the  directly  chosen  representatives  of  the  wards.  As 
matters  stand,  it  is  quite  common  to  confer  the  al- 
dermanic rank  upon  the  senior  councilor  from  each 
ward,  thus  creating  a  vacancy  to  be  filled  by  the  elec- 
tion of  a  new  councilor.  In  effect  this  gives  each  fourth  ward 
ward  four  representatives,  the  alderman  being  a  sort  iept?ven 
of  ward  "  father."  In  some  councils  it  is  customary 
to  give  the  chairmanships  of  committees  exclusively 
to  aldermen. 


68  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  in.  The  ward  system  in  English  municipal  government 
is  relieved  of  one  great  objection  to  ward  representa- 
tion in  American  cities  from  the  fact  that  there  is  no ( 
Residence  in  grille,  tradition,  or  practice  that  makes  the  council  can- '( 
required,  'didate  a  resident  of  the  ward.  In  this  regard  the  cus- 
toms of  England  and  America  are  totally  different. 
If  ward  representation  in  councils  meant  "  ward  poli- 
tics" and  strictly  local  candidates,  as  in  American 
cities,  the  English  would  at  once  adopt  the  general 
ticket  plan  of  electing  councilors  on  some  such  prin- 
ciple as  they  have  adopted  in  the  election  of  school- 
boards. 

The  great  consolidation  act  of  1882  did  somewhat 
more  than  revise  and  "  codify  "  the  existing  statutes. 
It  introduced  changes  here  and  there,  the  most  im- 
portant of  which,  perhaps,  is  the  addition  of  the  words 
italicized  in  the  clause  which  declares  that  the  mayor 
shall  be  elected  "  from  the  aldermen  or  councilors,  or 
mayors,     persons  qualified  to  be  such."    In  the  old  days  of  close 
corporations  the  mayor  was  chosen  from  the  alder- 
manic  rank.  The  Reform  Act  of  1835  limited  the  range 
of  selection  to  the  membership  of  the  body  of  alder- 
men and  councilors,  by  whom  he  was  to  be  designated. 
The  act  of  1882  gave  the  council  permission  to  elect 
any  qualified  citizen.   Since  that  date  there  may  have 
been  several  deviations  from  the  time-honored  custom 
of  selecting  the  mayor  from  the  council ;  but  at  least 
they  have  been  rare.    I  can  cite  one  instance.    The 
city  of  Cambridge  in  November,  1893,  by  agreement  be- 
Rare  in-     tween  the  political  parties  elected  ten  councilors,  five 
8  ma°  or f     Conservatives  and  five  Liberals,  without  contest ;  and 
chosen  out-    by  unanimous  agreement  of  the  forty  members,  the 
council,      mayoralty  was  conferred  upon  Mr.  E.  H.  Parker,  who 
was  not  in  the  body.    This  is  the  only  instance  of 
which  I  am  aware.    Aldermanic  vacancies  are  filled 
on  the  9th  of  November  immediately  following  the 


THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION 


59 


CHAP.  III. 


Mayor  as 

presiding 

officer. 


Reelection 
of  mayors. 


election  of  mayor,  and  outgoing  aldermen  are  eligible 
for  the  mayoralty ;  but  the  cases  where  an  outgoing 
alderman  is  elected  as  mayor  without  being  at  the 
same  time  reelected  as  alderman,  are  very  exceptional. 
In  any  case,  the  mayor  would  by  virtue  of  his  office  be 
the  presiding  officer  of  the  council.  He  votes  by  right 
of  membership,  and  if  necessary  he  gives  a  second  or 
casting  vote  as  presiding  officer.  He  is  a  justice  of 
the  peace  during  his  incumbency  and  for  the  year  fol- 
lowing. He  is  eligible  for  reelection  indefinitely,  and 
there  are  several  smaller  towns  which  have  made  the 
same  man  mayor  from  six  to  ten  times.  Birmingham 
in  fifty  years  had  forty-one  different  mayors,  and  only 
six  of  them  were  honored  with  more  than  one  term,  a 
third  term  as  an  extraordinary  honor  having  been  ac- 
corded Sir  John  Eatcliff  (1856-58),  Mr.  Joseph  Cham- 
berlain (1873-75),  and  Mr.  T.  Martineau  (1884-86). 
Manchester  on  the  other  hand  had  only  twenty-seven 
different  mayors  in  fifty  years,  and  all  but  eight  of 
them  served  for  more  than  one  term.  Of  two  hundred 
and  eighty-four  municipal  corporations  of  England 
and  Wales,  eighty  reelected  their  mayors  on  the  No- 
vember 9  of  a  recent  year.  But  these  reelections  were 
almost  invariably  in  the  smaller  places,  Bristol  being 
the  only  one  of  the  large  towns  which  continued  the 
mayor  in  his  office. 

Generally  speaking,  the  mayoralty  is  conferred  as 
an  honor,  and  it  is  regarded  as  the  fair  thing  to  keep  significance 
passing  it  along.    The  mayor  is  not  elected  so  much 
to  render  new  public  service  as  to  be  rewarded  for 
past  service.    The  office  confers  dignity  and  influence, 
and  a  sort  of  recognized  leadership  in  municipal  affairs 
that  may  enable  the  incumbent  to  accomplish  a  great 
deal.    But  it  confers  no  important  administrative  re-  <* 
sponsibilities.    During  his  year  of  office  the  mayor' 
will  be  expected  to  devote  much  of  his  time  to  the 


of  the 
mayoralty. 


'I 


60 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 


CHAP.  III. 


Formal 
duties. 


No  appoint- 
ing power. 


No  veto. 


A  host  of 
ex-mayors 

in  the 
councils. 


public  welfare.  He  will  be  allowed  such  remuneration 
as  the  council  may  choose  to  grant  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  his  official  dignity.  He  is  the  presiding  offi- 
cer of  the  council,  and  has  certain  routine  powers  and 
duties  that  would  naturally  fall  to  a  presiding  officer. 
He  may  at  any  time  call  a  meeting  of  the  council,  in 
a  manner  prescribed  by  law,  and  so  may  any  five 
members  of  the  council.  He  is  a  returning-officer,  and 
has  various  duties  in  connection  with  the  holding  of 
elections;  but  these  are  merely  formal  matters.  His 
commission  as  a  justice  of  the  peace  is  intended  to 
enhance  his  dignity  and  authority  rather  than  to  give 
him  added  work  or  responsibility.  He  has  no  ap- 
pointive power,  except  as  regards  the  designation  of 
polling-officers,  or  some  such  occasional  and  incidental 
matters.  Nor  has  he  the  right  of  nomination  to  any 
positions  whatever  in  the  municipal  service.  He  has 
no  veto  upon  ordinances  or  by-laws  of  the  council,  and 
no  more  power  than  any  councilor  except  that  he 
may,  in  case  of  a  tie,  give  a  determining  vote.  He  is, 
then,  to  be  regarded  simply  as  the  presiding  officer 
of  the  council,  with  special  dignities  attached  to  his 
office.  He  serves  on  council  committees,  and  common- 
ly holds  a  chairmanship  or  two.  When  his  term  in  the 
chair  is  over,  he  usually  goes  right  on  with  his  duties 
as  alderman,  probably  continuing  at  the  head  of  the 
committee  for  the  work  of  which  he  is  best  qualified. 
Thus  there  were,  at  a  time  when  I  inquired  into  the 
matter,  at  least  half  a  dozen  ex-mayors  in  the  alder- 
manic  rank  of  the  Manchester  council;  and  all  the 
mayors  that  Birmingham  had  had  for  twenty  years 
remained  in  the  town  council  with  four  exceptions, 
three  of  which  were  accounted  for  by  the  promotion 
of  Messrs.  J.  and  R.  Chamberlain  and  Mr.  Jesse  Col- 
lings  to  seats  in  Parliament ;  and  over  against  these 
exceptions  were  to  be  placed  two  ex-mayors  of  earlier 


THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION  61 

dates  who  still  served  as  aldermen.   The  ferreting  out    CHAP.  HI. 
of  such  facts  might  involve  labor  more  curious  than 
profitable  but  for  the  light  thus  thrown  upon  the  con- 
tinuity of  English  municipal  administration,  and  the 
amount  of  ripe  experience  it  is  able  to  command. 

The  foregoing  description  of  the  English  mayor  English  and 
will  have  been  very  insufficient  if  it  has  failed  to  show      mayors 
how  entirely  different  an  official  he  is  from  the  Ameri-        like. 
can  mayor.    Except  as  regards  what  we  may  call  the 
"  dignity  business,"  the  two  officials  are  not  even  analo- 
gous.   When  essentials  are  considered,  the  American 
functionary  who  corresponds  to  the  English  mayor  is 
the  president  or  chairman  of  the  common  council. 

And  even  that  comparatively  unpretentious  officer  has  pointmentof 
.,       ,  i     -n     -i  •  i  n  •»  council com- 

greater  power  than  the  Jiinglish  mayor,  tor  in  many  if     mittees. 

not  in  all  of  the  American  cities  he  makes  up  the 
council  committees  according  to  his  own  fancy,  and 
thus  exercises  a  far-reaching  influence  upon  the  work 
of  administration  in  the  various  departments ;  while 
the  English  law  obliges  the  council  itself  to  appoint 
its  own  committees.  This  is  a  matter  of  no  trivial? 
•  importance,  as  anybody  at  all  conversant  with  muni-' 
cipal  affairs  will  instantly  understand. 

The  typical  American  mayor  is  no  part  of  the  coun- 
cil or  its  organization.  He  is  elected  directly  by  the  The  typical 
people.  He  is  an  independent,  coordinate  authority.  mayor. 
He  bears  somewhat  the  same  relation  to  the  council 
that  the  President  of  the  United  States  sustains  to- 
ward Congress  or  the  governor  of  a  State  toward  the 
legislature.  The  analogy  falls  short,  however,  in  the 
very  important  practical  fact  that  the  work  of  Con- 
gress and  the  State  legislature  is  principally  that  of 
legislation,  while  the  work  of  municipal  councils  is 
of  necessity  principally  that  of  administration.  The 
theoretical  independence  and  distinct  executive  re- 
sponsibility of  the  President  and  the  governors  is  ex- 


62 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  III. 


No  logical 
distribution 
of  power  be- 
tween coun- 
cil and 
mayor  in 
United 
States. 


Evils  of 
divided  re- 
sponsibility. 


The  mayor 
as  dictator. 


tremely  difficult  to  maintain  in  practice,  for  the  line 
between  legislative  and  administrative  work  and  au- 
thority is  not  at  all  distinct.  Still  more  difficult  is  it 
in  practice  to  apportion  duties  and  responsibilities  be- 
tween an  American  mayor  and  the  common  council 
in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  real  efficiency  on  both 
sides.  It  is  not  easy  to  see  where  in  the  nature  of 
things  the  proper  functions  of  one  authority  end  and 
those  of  the  other  begin.  In  the  dispersion  of  author-? 
ity,  definite  responsibility  too  easily  disappears.  The 
mayor's  veto  upon  ordinances  passed  by  the  council 
divides  responsibility  for  tht  by-laws.  The  council's 
power  of  rejecting  appointees  nominated  by  the  mayor 
very  considerably  diminishes  his  responsibility  for  the 
proper  exercise  of  the  appointing  power.  Where  the 
control  of  the  police  is  not  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
both  these  coordinate  authorities,  and  vested  by  the 
State  in  a  separate  board  of  commissioners,  the  police 
administration  is  likely  again  and  again  to  be  a  bone 
of  contention  between  the  mayor  and  the  council. 
The  embarrassments  and  opportunities  growing  out 
of  this  divided  responsibility  are  among  the  principal 
causes  of  the  comparative  failure  of  city  government 
in  the  United  States.  Many  earnest  and  intelligent 
municipal  reformers,  especially  in  New  York  and  the 
Eastern  States,  have  advocated  the  plan  of  greatly  in- 
creasing the  authority  of  the  mayor,  so  that  he  may 
be  held  more  definitely  responsible  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  various  executive  departments.  It  is 
the  plan  of  a  periodically  elective  dictatorship.  As  a 
remedy  for  the  evils  that  grow  out  of  interferences 
by  the  State,  and  the  farming  out  of  certain  depart- 
ments— such  as  parks  or  water-supply — to  special 
boards  or  commissions  not  responsible  to  the  mayor 
or  the  council  or  the  people,  and  further  as  a  tempo- 
rary measure  of  defense  against  untrustworthy  and 


THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION  63 

corrupt  councils,  this  somewhat  heroic  plan  of  mak-  CHAP.  in. 
ing  the  mayor  a  dictator,  or,  to  use  the  Cromwellian 
euphemism, "  a  protector,"  seems  to  have  a  great  deal  in 
its  favor.  But  it  is  unrepublican,  and  it  does  not  at  all 
solve  the  difficult  problem  of  harmonizing  the  authority 
of  the  mayor  and  the  authority  of  the  council.  The  re- 
lation between  the  two  cannot  at  best  be  other  than  that 
of  a  shifting,  unprofitable,  and  illogical  compromise. 

It  would  seem  a  little  strange  that  the  one  school 
of  reformers  should  not  have  been  earlier  opposed  by 
another  which  would  advocate  the  concentration  of  why  not  try 
authority  and  responsibility  in  the  council.  Logically,  fui  council? 
the  mayor  must  eventually  swallow  the  council  or  the 
council  must  swallow  the  mayor,  if  political  forces 
are  to  be  accorded  some  degree  of  natural  play ;  and 
the  one  man  power  is  on  the  decline  everywhere  in 
this  age.  Municipal  governments,  elsewhere  than  in 
the  United  States,  after  having  constituted  a  ruling 
body,  do  not  erect  a  separate  one-man  power  and  give 
it  the  means  to  obstruct  the  ruling  administrative 
body  and  to  diminish  its  scope  and  responsibility. 
The  mayor  elsewhere  is  an  integral  part  of  the  coun- 
cil. English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  municipal  government 
is  simply  government  by  a  group  of  men  who  are  to 
be  regarded  as  a  grand  committee  of  the  corpora- 
tion— the  corporation  consisting  of  the  whole  body  of  Government 

i  T/«     i        •••  T       m  'j.    •  by  a  citizens' 

burgesses  or  qualified  citizens.  In  Glasgow  it  is  a  committee. 
committee  of  seventy-eight;  in  Edinburgh,  of  forty- 
one;  in  Manchester,  of  one  hundred  and  four;  in 
Birmingham,  of  seventy-two;  in  Liverpool,  Leeds, 
Sheffield,  and  most  of  the  large  English  towns,  of 
sixty-four;  in  Dublin,  of  sixty;  in  Belfast,  of  forty; 
and  in  the  other  incorporated  towns  of  the  United 
Kingdom  it  varies  from  twelve  to  sixty-four,  according 
to  their  size.  So  far  as  these  bodies  have  authority  to 
pass  by-laws  at  all,  their  authority  is  complete,  and 


64  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  in.    nobody  obtrudes  a  veto.     They  appoint  and  remove 

all  officials.     They  have  entire  charge  of  municipal 

HOW  it      administration,  distributing  the  work  of  departmen- 

works  in 

practice,  tal  management  and  supervision  to  standing  com- 
mittees of  their  own  number,  which  they  organize 
and  constitute  as  they  please.  If  such  a  local  gov- 
ernment cannot  be  trusted,  the  fault  is  with  popu- 
lar institutions.  It  is  quite  certain  to  be  as  good  a 
government  as  the  people  concerned  deserve  to  have. 
The  location  of  responsibility  is  perfectly  definite. 
When  the  Glasgow  city  improvement  scheme  became 
unpopular  with  the  voters  because  it  was  proving 
more  expensive  than  its  projectors  had  promised,  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  was  retired  by  his  con- 
stituents at  the  end  of  his  term.  The  taxpayers  hold 
every  member  of  council  responsible  for  his  votes. 
The  system  is  as  simple,  logical,  and  effective  as  the 
American  system  is  complicated  and  incompatible  with 
harmonious  and  responsible  administration.  City  gov- 
ernment in  America  defeats  its  own  ends  by  its  "  checks 
and  balances,"  its  partitions  of  duty  and  responsibil- 
ity, and  its  grand  opportunities  for  the  game  of  hide- 
and-seek.  Infinitely  superior  is  the  English  system, 
by  which  the  people  give  the  entire  management  of 
their  affairs  to  a  big  committee  of  their  own  number, 
which  they  renew  from  time  to  time. 

The  most  important  official  in  an  English  municipal 
corporation  is  the  town  clerk.    He  has  a  large  salary, 
cie?k  and     and  is  expected  to  hold  his  office  for  life.    He  is  the 
offlceera.      council's  recording  officer,  the  custodian  of  records, 
deeds,  and  charters,  the  council's  legal  adviser,  the 
medium  through  which  communication  is  had  with 
the  Local  Government  Board,  the  publisher  of  regis- 
tration lists  and  election  announcements,  the  drafts- 
man of  bills  which  the  council  desires  Parliament  to 
pass,  the  general  secretary  of  the  borough,  and  a  high 


THE  BRITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION  $5 

authority  on  points  of  municipal  law,  precedent,  and  CHAP.  in. 
history.  The  only  other  officer  which  the  Municipal 
Corporations  Act  requires  all  town  councils  to  appoint 
is  a  treasurer.  The  clerk  and  the  treasurer  must  be 
different  persons,  and  must  not  be  members  of  the 
council.  As  for  the  rest,  the  law  declares  that 

the  council  shall  from  time  to  time  appoint  such  other  officers 
as  have  been  usually  appointed  in  the  borough,  or  as  the  coun- 
cil think  necessary,  and  may  at  any  time  discontinue  the  ap- 
pointment of  any  officer  appearing  to  them  not  necessary  to  be 
reappointed. 

There  must  be  three  auditors,  one  appointed  from  the 
council  by  the  mayor  and  the  other  two  elected  by  the 
burgesses ;  but  they  are  not  regarded  as  city  officers 
in  the  ordinary  sense,  being  merely  called  in  twice  a 
year  to  examine  the  treasurer's  accounts  and  vouchers. 
But  while  the  organization  of  the  working  depart- 
ments and  the  creation  of  municipal  offices  are  left  to 
the  discretion  of  their  respective  councils,  there  is  a 
general  similarity  among  the  towns.  It  is  the  almost  Expert  de- 

.     J  3    .  partment 

uniform  practice  to  appoint  as  permanent  chiefs  or  chiefs. 
superintendents  of  departments  the  most  thoroughly 
qualified  men  who  can  be  secured,  and  to  hold  them 
responsible  to  the  council,  through  the  standing  com- 
mittees, for  the  ordinary  operation  of  their  respective 
branches  of  the  municipal  service.  These  towns  have, 
as  a  rule,  undertaken  so  extensive  a  range  of  public 
activities  that  the  number  of  their  employees  is  great. 
But  the  average  of  efficiency  is  also  very  high.  At 
the  head  of  the  police,  fire,  water,  gas,  sanitary,  park, 
engineering,  and  other  departments  are  to  be  found 
men  of  special  fitness  and  training,  who  are  selected 
for  administrative  ability  as  well  as  for  expert  know- 
ledge, and  whose  security  of  tenure,  for  so  long  as  they 
deserve  it,  adds  to  their  faithfulness  and  usefulness. 

I.— 5 


66 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


GHAP.  in. 


The  muni- 

cipal  civil 


SuppiyPof 
s°dais. 


Nothing  in  British  city  government  will  be  more  likely 
to  impress  the  American  who  observes  it  closely  than 
its  indebtedness  for  a  large  part  of  its  success  to  the 
superiority  of  the  appointive  heads  of  departments. 

It  is  everywhere  earnestly  claimed  in  England  and 
Scotland  that  party  considerations  weigh  nothing  in 
appointments,  and  that  regard  is  had  to  efficiency 

fr  '  ,    .  °  , 

alone  ;  and  the  claim  on  the  whole  seems  to  be 
justified.  In  American  cities  it  is  generally  thought 
necessary  to  choose  municipal  servants  from  local 
applicants  or  candidates  ;  but  there  is  no  such  limita- 
tion in  England.  It  is  usual  to  advertise  a  vacancy  ; 
and  the  committee  most  directly  concerned  make  their 
choice  from  the  applicants,  and  then  recommend  to 
the  full  council  for  action.  If  a  chief  of  police  is 
wanted  for  a  town  even  of  moderate  size,  there  are 
likely  to  be  applicants  by  the  score  or  hundred  from 
all  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom.  Offices  are  held  so 
permanently  that  promotion  is  not  very  rapid,  and  a 
vacancy  at  the  head  of  a  department  will  therefore  be 
sought  by  the  men  of  lower  rank  in  the  corresponding 
departments  of  other  towns;  and  clear  merit  usually 
wins.  There  are  no  competitive  examinations  either 
for  the  higher  or  the  lower  walks  of  the  municipal 
service  in  England  or  in  Scotland,  other  means  of  as- 
certaining men's  qualifications  being  preferred. 

In  filling  up  the  ranks,  —  selection  being  left  in  a 
very  considerable  measure  to  the  responsible  depart- 
mental  head,  —  the  English  towns  have  of  course  a 
great  advantage  over  those  of  America.  Good  men 
are  so  much  more  numerous  than  good  positions,  and 
the  competitive  struggle  for  existence  is  so  terribly 
severe,  that  a  place  in  the  public  service,  even  though 
humble  and  poorly  paid,  attracts  men  of  a  class  who 
in  America  could  not  be  induced  to  give  up  the 
chances  of  success  in  business  or  professional  life 


THE  BEITISH  SYSTEM  IN  OPERATION  67 

for  a  small  clerkship  or  inspectorship  in  a  municipal    CHAP.  HI. 
department. 

Englishmen  are  not  indifferent  about  their  munici-  Few  charges 

of  favori- 

pal  matters,  and  they  know  very  well  how  to  grumble ;  tism. 
and  it  is  therefore  a  significant  thing  that  one  rarely 
encounters  a  charge  of  favoritism  or  unworthy  use  of 
patronage  in  municipal  appointments.  The  number 
of  unsuccessful  applicants  is  so  large  that  if  frequent 
abuses  of  the  appointive  power  occurred  there  would 
be  no  lack  of  persons  to  complain  and  to  make  the 
facts  known.  It  would  be  easy  to  give  instances  of 
the  appointment  to  responsible  places  of  men  who 
applied  as  strangers  from  distant  towns,  without  ac- 
quaintance or  other  influence  than  their  testimonials 
and  proofs  of  fitness  and  of  good  work  already  done. 
A  particularly  valuable  test  of  the  fairness  and 
purity  of  any  municipal  administration  is  the  estima-  The  Police 

fores  &s  & 

tion  in  which  the  police  department  is  held  by  good    test  of  mu- 

...  „,  *|T.  .    .  '  nicipaleffi- 

citizens.  The  complaints  and  suspicions  so  commonly  ciency. 
directed  against  the  police  authorities  of  American 
cities  are  almost  unknown  in  England.  At  least  they 
exist  only  in  a  very  slight  measure.  Every  precau- 
tion is  taken  to  keep  an  English  police  force  up  to 
a  high  standard.  Control  is  vested  in  a  council  com- 
mittee, of  which  the  mayor  is  a  member,  but  a  quasi- 
military  discipline  is  maintained  by  the  head  constable 
(chief  of  police),  who  in  many  cases  has  held  a  com- 
mission in  the  army.  Half  of  the  expense  of  main- 
taining the  police  force  of  every  city  or  district  of 
Great  Britain  is  paid  by  the  general  government. 
But  this  payment  is  made  on  the  report  of  govern- 
ment inspectors,  who  must  find  that  the  force  is 
adequate  in  numbers,  well  organized  and  disciplined, 
and  in  general  respects  up  to  the  high  standard  that 
the  statutes  and  the  Home  Office  require.  The  in- 
spection of  the  government  tends  to  produce  some- 


68  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  in.    thing  like  uniformity  in  the  organization  of  police 
forces,  and  is  an  altogether  salutary  influence. 

Indeed,  the  relationship  that  now  exists  between 
the  municipal  administration  and  the  central  govern- 

Relation  of 

municipal  to  ment  at  many  points  is  advantageous  rather  than 
government,  hampering  to  the  local  corporation.  It  is  no  hard- 
ship to  make  regular  annual  or  semi-annual  reports 
to  the  Local  Government  Board,  or  the  Treasury,  or 
the  Home  Office,  touching  all  matters  of  corporate  in- 
come and  outgo,  and  the  results  of  the  administration 
of  sanitary  and  other  public  statutes.  Through  the 
medium  of  the  Local  Government  Board, —  its  regu- 
lar publications,  its  permanent  staff  in  the  London 
offices,  and  its  expert  visiting  inspectors, — the  officials 
of  one  town  are  supplied  with  knowledge  of  the  doings 
and  experiences  of  other  towns,  are  deterred  from 
harmful  experiments,  and  are  instructed  in  the  best 
methods.  At  times  it  appears  a  needless  interference 
with  local  affairs  that  compels  a  well-governed  city  to 
submit  to  the  central  authorities  for  inspection  and 
Advantages  approval  every  scheme  whatsoever  that  necessitates 
supervision,  the  borrowing  of  money.  If  there  were  any  lack  of 
system  in  the  methods  by  which  local  projects  are 
passed  upon  by  Westminster,  or  if  there  were  any 
serious  taint  of  partisanship,  favoritism,  or  arbitrary 
judgment  upon  the  processes  employed,  the  mechan- 
ism would  break  down  speedily,  and  a  more  complete 
local  autonomy  in  matters  involving  municipal  outlay 
and  indebtedness  would  have  to  be  accorded.  But  the 
system  works  in  the  interest  of  justice,  and  its  costli- 
ness in  money  and  in  time  is  counterbalanced  by  the 
benefits  which  accrue  from  the  more  thorough  pre- 
liminary sifting  that  every  scheme  receives  in  prepara- 
tion for  the  searching  ordeal  at  "Westminster,  and 
from  the  valuable  emendations  which  so  often  result 
from  the  advice  that  expert  central  officials  can  give. 


CHAPTER  IV 
A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 

THE  methods  and  results  of  British  municipal 
government  may  best  be  studied  in  the  concrete. 
I  have  therefore  chosen  Glasgow  as  a  type,  for  a  some- 
what full  analysis  and  description.  The  illustrative 
account  of  its  institutions  may  involve  some  repeti- 
tion of  matters  already  discussed  in  preceding  chap- 
ters ;  but  there  are  obvious  advantages  in  rehearsing 
the  rules  and  principles  of  a  general  system  from 
the  point  of  view  of  their  working  in  a  particular 

*  Glasgow  s 

instance.  rank  among 

The  people  of  Glasgow  are  accustomed  to  claim  for  cities. 
their  city  the  second  place  in  the  British  empire.  If 
by  the  words  "  city,"  "  burgh,"  or  "  borough,"  there  is 
meant  merely  a  populous  place, —  an  aggregation  of 
houses  and  people  with  a  concentration  of  various 
commercial,  industrial,  and  social  interests, —  then 
metropolitan  London  would  assuredly  rank  first  and 
without  rival.  But  if  by  these  words  is  meant  a  dis- 
tinct and  complete  municipal  organism,  the  people  of 
Glasgow  may  claim  not  the  second,  but  the  first  place 
among  the  communities  of  Great  Britain.  London 
as  a  municipal  corporation  is  but  a  mile  in  extent  and 
has  less  than  forty  thousand  people — "  larger  London" 
having  no  unified  corporate  existence,  although  the 
new  London  county  government  must  be  regarded 
as  the  beginning  of  a  metropolitan  administration. 

I.-5*  69 


70  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  Glasgow  in  1891  had  a  population  of  565,700  within  a 
compactly  inhabited  area  of  6111  acres ;  and  its  vigor- 

wm  s»       ous  development  had  caused  so  generous  an  overflow 

contain  a  that  the  whole  community,  including  the  continuously 
people.  built-up  suburbs,  numbered  more  than  800,000  souls. 
The  annexation  of  5750  additional  acres  was  accom- 
plished by  act  of  Parliament  on  November  1,  1891, 
some  months  after  the  census  was  taken,  and  nearly 
a  hundred  thousand  people  were  thus  added.  There 
are  other  populous  and  immediately  contiguous  sub- 
urbs that  should  be  brought  within  the  corporate 
limits  at  an  early  day.  The  end  of  a  half-decade 
after  the  census  of  April,  1891,  will  easily  justify  an 
estimate  of  750,000  residents  within  the  existing  boun- 
daries, and  150,000  more  in  the  unannexed  suburban 
districts.  And  the  next  census,  in  1901,  may  find  that 
the  "  greater  Glasgow  "  contains  approximately  a  mil- 
Merits  study  lion  souls. 

13  atype.en  As  a  type  of  the  modern  city  with  highly  developed 
and  vigorous  municipal  life,  and  with  complex,  yet 
unified,  industrial  and  social  activities, —  in  short,  as 
one  of  the  most  characteristic  of  the  great  urban  com- 
munities in  the  English-speaking  world  of  the  closing 
nineteenth  century, —  Glasgow  may  well  repay  study. 
It  combines  in  itself  most  remarkably  all  that  is  signi- 
ficant in  the  history  of  city  government  among  peoples 
of  British  origin — that  is  to  say,  to  study  Glasgow  is 
to  study  the  progress  of  municipal  institutions  in 
every  stage.  Like  all  modern  commercial  cities  Glas- 
gow has  exhibited  the  phenomenon  of  rapid  growth, 
and  has  had  to  meet  the  various  problems  that  rapid 
growth  under  new  industrial  and  social  conditions 
has  forced  upon  the  attention  of  all  such  cities.  In 
1750  the  population  was  less  than  25,000.  In  1800  it 
was  approximately  75,000.  In  1811  it  was  100,000; 
in  1831,  200,000 ;  in  1851,  329,000 ;  and  in  1871  it  was 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  71 

478,000.    In  1881  it  had  reached  488,000,  with  186,000    CHAP.  iv. 

more  of  overflow  into  the  immediate  suburbs,  making 

a  total  of  674,000.    And  to-dav  within  a  district  six    A  record  of 

quick 

or  seven  miles  long  and  three  or  four  miles  wide,  con-     growth. 
taining  less  than  15,000  acres,  there  is  a  population  of 
not  less  than  800,000. 

Whether  originally  due  in  greater  or  less  degree  to 
the  danger  of  raids  from  Highland  clans  and  attacks 
from  invading  English  armies,  it  has  from  a  very 
early  period  been  the  custom  of  Scotch  townsfolk  to 
build  compactly  and  to  house  the  population  in  tene-  high  degree. 
ment-flats.  Aberdeen,  Dundee,  and  Leith  illustrate 
this  custom  quite  as  well  as  do  Edinburgh  and  Glas- 
gow. Rapid  growth  in  the  nineteenth  century  has 
given  most  serious  reality  to  all  the  latent  and  lurking 
evils  of  a  tenement-house  system,  and  Glasgow  has 
been  compelled  to  study  and  apply  modern  remedies 
—  indeed  to  be  a  leader  in  the  invention  and  trial  of 
remedies  —  for  the  ills  that  spring  from  the  over- 
crowding of  the  poor.  The  regulation  of  house-  Municipal 

. ,  ,.  in  •    •  n          i  •       remedies  for 

building  and  of  occupancy;  provision  for  domestic  social nis. 
cleanliness;  methods  of  street-cleansing,  of  garbage 
removal,  of  epidemic-disease  prevention;  improved 
"  watching  and  lighting "  arrangements,  with  a  view 
to  the  lessening  of  crime;  provision  of  shelter  for 
floating  population;  a  differentiated  and  adequate 
system  of  sanitary  inspection;  the  establishment  of 
baths  and  various  conveniences  to  improve  the  health, 
comfort,  and  moral  condition  of  the  people :  all  these 
features  of  recent  municipal  activity  may  be  studied 
to  special  advantage  in  Glasgow. 

Like  Liverpool  in  England,  or  Chicago  in  America, 
Glasgow  is  an  excellent  instance  of  what  I  may  call 
the  "  self-made,"  or  rather  self -located,  modern  com- 
mercial city,  as  contrasted  with  great  urban  commu- 
nities like  London  and  New  York,  which  have  as- 


72 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


Results  of 
Clyde  im- 
provement. 


CHAP.  iv.  sumed  vast  proportions  and  importance  in  spite  of 
themselves,  and  without  the  application  of  any  organic 
municipal  energy.  More  than  a  hundred  years  ago 
Glasgow  entered  deliberately  upon  the  herculean  task 
of  making  itself  an  important  port  by  deepening  its 
shallow  river  into  a  harbor  and  an  ocean  highway. 
Following  the  gradual  improvement  of  the  Clyde 
navigation  came  first  a  large  American  trade  in  to- 
bacco, cotton,  and  other  staples.  The  development 
of  the  coal  and  iron  mines  of  the  Clyde  valley  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  followed ;  and  when  the  day 
of  iron  ships  had  its  dawning,  Glasgow  was  prepared 
to  make  them  for  the  nations.  Meanwhile,  textile 
and  chemical  manufactures  had  been  growing  in  im- 
portance, and  the  community  found  that  its  courage 
and  energy  had  resulted  in  its  expansion  to  the  rank 
of  one  of  the  greatest  centers  of  industry  and  com- 
merce  in  the  entire  world. 

In  all  this  expansion  Glasgow's  character  as  an 
community,  integral  community  has  been  exceptionally  well  sus- 
tained. The  people  have  been  disposed  to  live  inside 
the  circle  of  their  work,  and  that  must  obviously  sig- 
nify a  high  degree  of  centralization ;  by  which  I  mean 
something  more  than  mere  density  of  population. 
The  same  families  send  workers  to  the  ship-yards,  or 
iron-works,  and  to  the  textile  factories  where  women 
and  children  are  employed.  All  the  great  industries 
belong  essentially  to  the  one  working  community.  It 
is  peculiarly  interesting  to  observe  a  city  which,  hav- 
ing made  itself  prosperous  and  mighty  by  well-di- 
rected, organized  municipal  energy,  at  a  later  time 
applies  that  same  energy  to  the  solution  of  the  dark 
social  problems  which  seem  the  inevitable  concomi- 
tant of  the  new  material  progress  of  communities. 

The  early  history  of  Scottish  "burghs,"  like  that  of 
English  "  boroughs,"  has  many  points  of  interest ;  and 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


73 


CHAP.  IV. 


Glasgow's 
early 

charters. 


it  would  be  easy  to  yield  to  the  temptation  to  dwell  in 
detail  upon  the  ancient  charters  of  Glasgow  and  the 
rise  to  municipal  power  of  the  merchants'  guildry  and 
the  incorporated  bodies  of  tradesmen.  To  do  more, 
however,  than  merely  allude  to  the  historical  develop- 
ment of  the  municipality  would  not  be  in  keeping  with 
my  present  purpose.  In  very  early  times  Glasgow  was 
made  a  bishop's  seat  and  erected  into  a  "  burgh  of  ba- 
rony," governed  by  a  provost  and  bailies  or  magis- 
trates, who  derived  their  offices  from  their  patron  the 
bishop,  and  who  associated  councilors  with  them- 
selves. Without  attempting  to  record  any  of  the 
fluctuations  of  several  centuries  of  charters  altered 
and  renewed,  of  ecclesiastical  authority  now  domi- 
nant and  now  abdicated,  of  royal  interventions  some- 
times in  favor  of  the  bishops,  sometimes  of  the  barons, 
and  sometimes  of  the  citizens,  it  is  sufficient  to  say 
that  the  sixteenth  century  was  well  advanced  before 
the  citizens,  organized  in  guilds  for  the  regulation  of 
their  various  trades,  became  strong  enough  to  wrest 
away  any  considerable  share  of  municipal  authority 
from  their  ecclesiastical  and  baronial  rulers.  A  royal 
charter  granted  in  1611  specifically  gave  the  burgh  to 
the  "  magistrates,  council,  and  community  " ;  but  there 
were  still  reserved  to  the  archbishop  certain  rights  of 
nomination. 

It  was  not  until  1690,  when  William  and  Mary  gave 
a  new  charter,  that  the  city  was  fully  empowered  to 
choose  and  elect  its  own  provost,  bailies,  and  other 

*  7  The  Mer- 

officers.  Originally  the  burgesses  were  the  members  chants'  and 
of  the  merchants'  guild;  but  the  handicraftsmen, 
separately  organized  according  to  their  crafts  but 
federated  in  a  "Trades'  House,"  afterward  attained 
the  right  to  share  with  the  "Merchants'  House"  the 
government  of  the  city.  Gradually  in  Glasgow,  as  in 
all  the  British  towns,  the  municipal  corporation  be- 


Trades' 
guilds. 


74  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  came  self-perpetuating.  Down  to  1801  the  executive 
council  of  Glasgow  was  composed  of  the  lord  provost, 
three  bailies  or  magistrates,  the  dean  of  guild  (head 
of  the  Merchants'  House),  the  deacon-convener  (head 
of  the  Trades'  House),  and  the  treasurer.  The  dean 
of  guild  and  deacon-convener,  as  the  elected  presi- 
dents of  the  Merchants'  and  Trades'  bodies,  were  ex- 
officio  members  of  the  council ;  while,  as  regards  the 
other  members,  the  council  itself  filled  all  vacancies 
in  its  own  number  by  selection  either  from  the  Mer- 

corporatfon.  chants'  order  or  the  Trades'  order.  From  its  own  mem- 
bership it  appointed  the  lord  provost  and  treasurer. 
The  town  clerk  and  chamberlain  were  standing  officers 
of  the  corporation,  outside  the  membership  of  the 
council.  In  1801  there  were  added  two  more  bailies, 
one  from  each  order,  making  a  total  of  nine.  It  may 
be  here  remarked  that  the  course  of  municipal  devel- 
opment in  the  other  Scottish  towns  had  been  quite  like 
that  of  Glasgow.  The  abuses  which  had  grown  so 
scandalous  in  most  of  the  English  towns  before  the 
municipal  reform  laws  of  this  century  were  passed 
seem  to  have  been  less  marked  in  Scotland,  although 
they  must  have  been  serious  enough. 

It  has  already  been  remarked  that  the  parliamen- 
tary reform  bill  of  1832  made  municipal  reform  in- 
evitable, and  that  Scotland,  with  a  smaller  number  of 
towns  than  England,  and  with  fewer  extraordinary 
and  anomalous  conditions  to  be  dealt  with,  received 

scotch  Re-    its  municipal  reform  act  first,  th    Scotch  bill  having 

^"ms.  Ol  been  passed  in  1833,  while  the  English  bill  was  de- 
layed until  1835,  and  municipal  reform  in  Ireland 
came  as  late  as  1840.  The  Scotch  Municipal  Reform 
Act,  1833,  made  the  municipal  franchise  the  same  as 
the  new  borough  parliamentary  franchise,  and  pro- 
vided for  the  election  of  councilors  in  all  the  larger 
towns  by  wards,  empowering  the  council  thus  chosen 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  75 

to  select  a  provost  and  bailies  from  its  own  numbers.    CHAP.  iv. 
In  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow  the  dean  of  guild  and 
deacon-convener  were  allowed  to  remain  in  the  coun- 
cil as  ex-officio  members,  while  in  other  large  towns, 
as  Aberdeen,  Dundee,  and  Perth,  the  dean  of  guild  concessions 

.  rT      i  .1  to  the  old 

was  similarly  retained  as  a  municipal  councilor.    The      system. 
"  Dean  of  Guilds'  Court "  was  also  preserved,  with  au- 
thority over  such  matters  as  street-lining,  the  width 
of  highways,  the  safe  construction  of  buildings,  etc., 
the  court  consisting  of  the  dean,  with  four  assistants 
from  each  of  the  incorporated  orders.    In  1846  the 
boundaries  of  Glasgow  were  greatly  extended,  and  at 
that  time  the  number  of  wards,  and  the  size  of  the 
council,  were  much  increased,  while  the  functions  of 
the  body  were  enlarged  by  Parliament ;  but  the  gen- 
eral form  established  by  the  act  of  1833  remained. 
While  popular  and  modernizing  in  its  spirit,  that  act) 
showed  great  wisdom  in  retaining  as  many  old  namesA 
customs,  and  official  posts  as  could  without  harm  be( 
wrought  into  the  new  system,  thus  preserving  the/ 
continuity  of  the  municipal  life,  and  minimizing  pre-, 
judiced  and  selfish  opposition  against  what  was  really) 
a  reform  of  the  most  sweeping  character. 

A  difference  or  two  might  be  profitably  noted  be-  The  scotch, 
tween  the  Scotch,  English,  and  Irish  reform  bills  —  all  irfshSbiiis! 
of  which  were  alike  in  making  the  council  the  full 
governing  body.  The  English  bill  provided  for  a  cer- 
tain number  of  aldermanic  members  of  the  council, 
to  be  selected  by  the  council  from  the  whole  body  of 
qualified  citizens  (although  in  practice  quite  invari- 
ably selected  from  their  own  number,  thus  creating 
vacancies  to  be  filled  by  ward  elections),  and  to  sit  for 
six  years,  while  ordinary  councilors  were  to  be  elected 
for  only  three  years.  The  Irish  act  authorizes  the 
council  to  choose  a  certain  number  of  aldermen,  but 
only  for  terms  of  three  years.  Aldermen  are  simply 


76  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  a  dignified  rank  of  councilors,  elected  by  an  elected 
body,  and  in  England  (though  not  in  Ireland)  enjoying 
scotch  longer  tenure  than  ordinary  councilors.  The  Scotch 
bailies,  bailies,  on  the  other  hand,  are  always  first  elected 
from  wards  as  ordinary  councilors,  and  they  continue 
their  duties  as  such,  although  selected  by  their  fellows 
as  citizen  magistrates.  In  this  magisterial  capacity 
they  try  police  cases ;  they  also  sit  as  a  licensing  court ; 
and  they  have  various  minor  duties  placed  upon  them 
outside  their  functions  as  councilors.  Inside  the  coun- 
cil-chamber they  are  simply  the  elected  representa- 
tives of  their  wards,  although  there  as  elsewhere  they 
are  regarded  as  persons  of  superior  dignity.  The  pro- 

Provosts  ,  .    .       0       , ,    ^ ,       ,  *T  i       li. 

and  mayors,  vosts  in  Scotland,  also,  are  chosen  for  three  years, 
while  the  mayors  in  England  and  Ireland  are  elected 
annually — in  all  cases  alike  being  chosen  by  the  coun- 
cil. At  the  risk  of  some  slight  repetition  I  shall  now 
describe  more  particularly  Glasgow's  constitution. 

The  present  municipal  organization  of  Glasgow  is 
simple  and  easily  understood  in  its  main  features,  al- 

The  Glasgow  though  somewhat  anomalous  and  complex  in  certain 

municipal  .  rm  i     i  i 

council,  minor  respects.  The  whole  government  may  be  said 
to  be  exercised  by  a  grand  committee  of  seventy-five 
men  chosen  by  the  qualified  electors,  together  with 
the  provost  and  two  other  ex-officio  members,  making 
a  total  body  of  seventy-eight.  There  are  twenty-five l 
municipal  wards,  each  of  which  elects  three  members 
of  the  town  council.  The  election  is  for  a  term  of 
three  years,  and  one  man  from  each  ward  retires  an- 
nually. The  two  ex-officio  members  of  the  council 
are  the  dean  of  guild,  who  represents  the  vener- 
able Merchants'  House,  and  the  deacon-convener,  or 
chairman  of  the  associated  trade-guilds;  these  two 

1  The  number  of  wards  was  increased  from  sixteen  to  twenty- 
five  when  the  boundaries  were  extended  in  1891,  the  elected 
councilors  being  increased  from  forty-eight  to  seventy-five. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  77 

functionaries  representing  the  bodies  which  before  CHAP.  iv. 
the  Scotch  Municipal  Reform  Act  of  1833  were  in  sole 
control  of  the  municipal  government.  This  allow- 
ance of  a  small  share  in  municipal  government  to  the 
old-time  trades'  and  crafts'  corporations  is  not  practi- 
cally objectionable,  and  it  unites  the  present  with  the 
past  in  a  manner  peculiarly  British. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  I  have  discussed  minutely 
the  conditions  of  the  municipal  franchise  in  Glasgow.  Town  poii- 
I  have  shown  that,  in  considering  the  effect  of  the  franchise. 
franchise  upon  city  government,  it  is  to  be  borne  in 
mind  that  not  only  is  the  mass  of  unmarried  work- 
ing-men excluded,  but  also  all  others  who  have  failed 
to  pay  their  rates.  About  one  third  of  the  householders 
enfranchised  by  the  act  of  1868  evade  the  rates  and 
never  vote.  If  it  were  possible  to  secure  reinstate- 
ment by  payments  of  arrears,  as  an  election  approaches, 
there  would  be  a  tempting  field  of  activity  opened  up 
to  corrupt  politicians.  But  this  cannot  be  done.  The 
better  class  of  working-men  in  Glasgow  pay  their 
rates,  take  an  active  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  do 
not  fail  to  vote.  But  there  is  a  very  large  population 
of  the  degraded  poor  which  does  not  in  fact  partici- 
pate in  elections,  and  is  not  of  the  slightest  service 
to  "  ward  politicians  " —  genus  which,  by  the  way,  is 
rarely  found  in  British  cities.  What  I  have  called 
the  self-disfranchisement  of  the  slums  is  an  important 
consideration  in  Glasgow's  municipal  government. 

The  councilors  of  Glasgow  come  chiefly  from  the  character  of 
ranks  of  men  of  business,  and  are  upright,  respected,    councnora. 
and  successful  citizens.    No  salaries  attach  to  such 
offices  anywhere  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and  it  is 
deemed  an  honor  to  be  selected  to  represent  one's 
ward.     Party  lines  are  seldom  very  sharply  drawn  in 
municipal  elections.    An  efficient  councilor  may,  in 
general,  expect  reelection  for  several  terms  if  he  is 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  iv.  willing  to  serve.  The  seat  of  a  satisfactory  man  who 
asks  reelection  is  in  a  majority  of  cases  not  contested 
at  all.  No  other  candidate  will  appear,  and  he  will 
be  awarded  the  seat  without  the  actual  holding  of 
an  election.  It  may  be  said  that  in  the  twenty-five 
wards  of  Glasgow  it  is  unusual  to  have  more  than 
from  five  to  ten  contests  for  seats  in  any  one  year. 

From  their  own  number  the  councilors  choose  a 
"  Provost,"  usually  called  the  "  Lord  Provost,"  and 

thTprovost.  the  "  Bailies  "  or  magistrates.  The  provost  in  Scotch 
towns  corresponds  to  the  mayor  in  English  towns, 
while  the  bailies  are  in  some  respects  analogous  to  the 
English  aldermen.  The  provost  presides  over  the 
council,  serves  on  council  committees,  and  personifies 
the  pomp  and  dignity  of  the  municipality ;  but  except 
in  his  capacity  as  a  member  of  the  council,  he  has  no 
important  executive  responsibility.  He  has  no  ap- 
pointments to  make,  and  has  no  veto  upon  enactments 
of  the  council.  Like  the  bailies,  he  is,  however,  a 
magistrate,  and  has  his  share  of  judicial  work  to  do, 
mostly  in  the  exercise  of  ordinary  police  jurisdiction. 
The  bailies  sit  as  citizen  magistrates,  in  certain  dis- 
tricts of  the  city  upon  a  plan  of  rotation,  each  being 
assisted  by  a  paid  legal  adviser  technically  called  an 
"assessor."  To  relieve  them  somewhat,  there  has 
been  employed  a  "stipendiary,"  or  salaried  police 
judge,  sitting  constantly  in  the  central  district.  The 
provost  and  bailies  are  designated  for  three  years. 
It  is  important  to  make  clear  to  American  readers 
that  the  lord  provost  is  in  no  sense  an  administra- 
tive head  as  the  American  mayors  are,  and  that  there 
is  not  in  British  cities  any  disposition  whatever  to 
concentrate  appointing  power  and  executive  control 
in  the  hands  of  one  man  as  an  effective  way  to  secure 
responsible  administration.  There  is  nothing  in  Brit- 
ish organization  or  experience  to  sustain  the  propo- 


Judicial 

work  of  the 

bailies. 


The  provost 

not  an 
executive. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


79 


sition  of  many  American  municipal  reformers  that 
good  city  government  can  be  secured  only  by  mak- 
ing the  mayor  a  dictator.  American  conditions  differ 
so  widely,  however,  from  English  conditions  that  the 
success  of  administration  by  town  councils  in  Great 
Britain  is  not  quite  a  conclusive  argument  against  the 
practical  wisdom  of  the  American  reformers. 

All  appointments,  as  I  have  said,  are  made  by  the 
council  itself.  Heads  of  departments  are  selected 
with  great  care,  and  their  places  are  practically  per- 
manent. In  the  minor  appointments  the  responsible 
heads  are  allowed  to  use  large  liberty  of  suggestion, 
the  council  ratifying  such  selections  as  are  agreed 
upon  by  the  departmental  head  and  the  supervising 
council  committee.  Although  the  number  of  persons 
in  the  employ  of  the  Glasgow  departments  is  large, 
there  is  no  examination  system  in  use.  The  best 
men  are  selected  from  among  the  applicants,  and 
there  is  little  or  no  complaint  of  favoritism.  Those 
conditions  under  which  an  examination  system  might 
be  very  desirable  happily  do  not  exist. 

While  the  full  government  of  the  city  is  vested  in 
the  seventy-eight  members  of  the  town  council  con- 
stituting a  body  officially  known  as  "the  lord  provost, 
magistrates,  and  council,"  they  exercise  their  powers 
under  various  acts  of  Parliament,  which  make  them 
(1)  water  commissioners,  (2)  gas  trustees,  (3)  market 
and  slaughter-house  commissioners,  (4)  parks  and 
galleries  trustees,  (5)  city-improvement  trustees,  and 
(6)  a  board  of  police  commissioners.  These  distinc- 
tions are  chiefly  matters  of  bookkeeping.  The  essen- 
tial fact  is  that  the  powers  are  all  vested  in  the  com- 
mon council.  Each  of  these  departments  is  organized 
separately,  and  its  work  is  carried  on  under  the  super- 
vision of  standing  committees  of  the  council. 

The  town  clerk  attends  the  council's  meetings  as 


CHAP.  IV. 


Appoint- 
ments and 
the  munici- 
pal service. 


The  council 
in  various 
capacities. 


80 

CHAP.  iv.  its  constant  legal  adviser.  He  drafts  measures  de- 
*  sired  from  Parliament,  and  takes  charge  of  them  while 
the  clerk,  pending.  He  is  the  city's  conveyancer,  the  custodian 
of  its  title-deeds  and  charters,  and  its  attorney  in  all 
civil  actions.  Glasgow's  present  clerk,  James  D.  Mar- 
wick,  LL.  D.,  is  a  high  authority  upon  questions  of 
municipal  history  and  law. 

chamberlain.  The  chamberlain,  whose  office,  like  that  of  the  town 
clerk,  is  very  ancient,  is  the  treasurer  of  the  corpora- 
tion proper ;  and  the  present  incumbent  has  been  ap- 
pointed as  the  treasurer  of  several  of  the  newer  de- 
partments or  "  trusts."  He  has  also,  in  Glasgow, 
gradually  assumed  the  function  of  a  compiler  of  mu- 
nicipal statistics.  He  joins  the  provost  and  town 
clerk  in  arranging  for  special  occasions  and  "  doing 
the  honors  "  of  the  city  to  distinguished  guests.  The 
nominal  treasurer  of  the  city  is  a  member  of  the  coun- 
cil; but  the  chamberlain  is  actual  custodian  of  the 
funds,  while  the  cashier  is  still  a  different  official. 

Theassessor.  Upon  the  assessor  there  devolves  the  important 
work  of  valuing  "  lands  and  heritages  "  from  year  to 
year  for  rating  purposes,  and  also  that  of  making  the 
registration  lists  of  parliamentary  and  municipal  vo- 
ters. Of  other  officials  enough  will  be  said  in  the 
descriptions  of  the  working  departments. 

sanitary  Considerations  of  the  public  health  have  been  pre- 
doSinant.  dominant  in  determining  the  most  important  lines 
of  action  entered  upon  within  the  last  quarter-century 
by  municipal  Glasgow.  I  shall  find  it  convenient, 
therefore,  to  begin  an  account  of  the  several  depart- 
ments with  a  sketch  of  the  organization  and  work  of 
the  sanitary  administration.  These  new  municipal 
undertakings  find  their  true  center  in  the  bureau  of 
the  medical  officer  of  health,  who  furnishes  the  vital 
statistics,  and  the  deductions  from  those  statistics, 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


81 


which  incite  and  direct  municipal  activity,  and  who 
gives  constant  advice  and  authoritative  judgment  as 
to  general  methods  and  particular  cases.  A  council 
committee  of  eighteen  supervises  the  entire  sanitary 
administration  of  the  city,  with  subcommittees  on 
cleansing  and  hospitals.  The  Sanitary  Department  is 
a  model  of  good  work  and  thorough  organization.  Its 
ultimate  authority  is  the  medical  officer  of  health, 
while  its  executive  head  is  the  chief  sanitary  inspec- 
tor. The  department  is  in  some  sense  double-headed; 
yet  there  is  no  conflict  of  authority,  and  the  arrange- 
ment works  admirably  in  practice.  The  medical  of- 
ficer is  relieved  from  the  details  of  administrative 
work.  His  office-room  adjoins  that  of  the  sanitary 
inspector,  and  the  two  officials  are  in  constant  com- 
munication. The  entire  force  of  inspectors  is  at  the 
service  of  the  medical  officer,  yet  he  has  no  respon- 
sibility for  their  routine  work. 

The  department  was  established  in  1870  upon  a 
broad  and  wise  basis.  It  was  at  that  time  proposed 
by  the  new  incumbent  of  the  office  of  sanitary  inspec- 
tor: (1)  that  the  city  should  be  divided  into  five  main 
districts  for  sanitary  purposes ;  (2)  that  a  subinspec- 
tor  should  be  appointed  for  each  main  district,  having 
under  him  ordinary  or  "  nuisance  "  inspectors,  epide- 
mic inspectors,  a  lodging-house  inspector,  and  a  lady 
visitor ;  and  (3)  that  a  central  office  should  be  estab- 
lished, with  the  necessary  clerks.  This  plan  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  council,  and  went  at  once  into  operation. 
The  population  at  that  time  was  450,000,  and  the 
average  inhabitancy  of  the  main  districts  was  there- 
fore 90,000.  The  work  began  with  an  out-of-door 
force  of  forty  inspectors,  of  whom  five  were  the  dis- 
trict chiefs,  five  inspected  lodging-houses,  seven  were 
occupied  with  the  detection  of  infectious  disease,  eigh- 
teen were  "nuisance"  men,  searching  for  ordinary 


CHAP.  IV. 

Organiza- 
tion of 
Health  De- 
partment. 


As  estab- 
lished in 
1870. 


I.— (. 


82 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


And  main- 
i89o. 


CHAP.  iv.  insanitary  conditions  in  and  about  the  houses  of  their 
districts,  and  five  were  "  women  house-to-house  visi- 
tors."  In  essential  features  the  organization  was  re- 
tained  unaltered  until  the  city  was  enlarged  in  1891. 
There  remained  the  five  main  districts  in  which  sani- 
tary inspection  was  carried  on,  although  their  boun- 
dary lines  had  been  altered  in  order  to  make  each  one 
of  them  precisely  inclusive  of  a  certain  number  of  the 
twenty-four  areas  into  which,  for  purposes  of  vital 
statistics,  the  medical  officer  had  divided  the  city. 
There  were  employed  eight  epidemic  inspectors,  six- 
teen nuisance  inspectors,  and  six  female  inspectors 
under  the  immediate  supervision  of  five  district  in- 
spectors. In  addition  to  these  there  were  six  night 
inspectors,  two  food  inspectors,  a  common  lodging- 
house  inspector,  and  a  vaccinator. 

By  legislation  in  1890,  extending  the  scope  of  the 
Sanitary  Department's  work,  and  by  the  increase  of 
municipal  area  in  1891,  there  was  rendered  necessary 
a  further  addition  to  the  little  army  of  inspectors. 
At  present  Mr.  Peter  Fyfe,  F.  R.  S.  E.,  the  efficient 
chief  inspector,  commands  the  services  of  about  one 
hundred  and  fifty  competent  people,  whose  duties  are 
highly  specialized  and  most  methodically  performed. 
There  are  now  seven  general  districts,  over  each  of 
which  there  is  a  foreman  inspector.  The  nuisance 
inspectors  number  more  than  a  score,  and  there  are 
half  as  many  men  constantly  occupied  in  making  the 
"smoke  test"  to  discover  defects  in  drain-pipes  for 
the  protection  of  the  people  against  bad  plumbing. 
The  various  On  constant  duty  are  twelve  or  more  inf  ectious-dis- 
'serrices.11  ease  inspectors,  and  following  in  the  wake  of  their 
discoveries  is  a  staff  of  disinfecting  officers  and  an- 
other of  whitewashers,  together  numbering  about 
twenty-five  men.  Protection  against  improper  food- 
supplies  requires  the  services,  besides  analysts  in  the 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  f  83 

municipal  laboratory,  of  three  meat  inspectors,  seven  CHAP.  iv. 
milk  and  dairy  inspectors,  and  four  inspectors  of  other 
food-supplies.  So  greatly  have  the  common  lodging- 
houses  improved  that  whereas  five  or  six  special  offi- 
cers were  formerly  kept  at  work  inspecting  them, 
only  two  are  now  necessary.  Six  night  inspectors 
continue  to  make  the  rounds  of  the  tenement-houses, 
and  six  women  inspectors  pay  visits  in  the  interest  of 
domestic  cleanliness.  A  workshop  inspector  repre- 
sents the  demands  of  new  laws  touching  the  hours 
and  the  general  conditions  of  factory  operation. 
There  is  also  a  peripatetic  vaccinator  who  fulfils  re- 
lentlessly the  requirements  of  law.  In  the  commodi- 
ous central  offices  of  the  Health  Department  there  is 
a  skilled  indoor  force  of  clerks  and  assistants.  The 
chief  sanitary  inspector  reviews  his  men  daily.  The 
seven  district  chiefs  are  in  conference  with  him  every 
morning,  and  the  individual  inspectors  who  perform 
special  duties  are  also  in  personal  daily  communica- 
tion with  headquarters.  Thus  the  sanitary  organiza- 
tion is  kept  at  the  height  of  efficiency. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  prime  necessity  for  Popuiation- 
all  this  vigilance  grows  out  of  the  density  of  popula-     Glasgow" 
tion,  which  is  not  equaled  by  that  of  any  other  British 
city  except  Liverpool.    The  density  of  London,  ac- 
cording to  the  census  of  1881,  was  51  to  the  acre,  while 
that  of  Glasgow  was  84,  which  was  increased  to  92  by 
the  census  of  1891,  the  annexed  suburbs  not  being  in- 
cluded.   The  average  density  of  sixteen  of  the  twen- 
ty-four sanitary  districts,  moreover,  is  above  200,  and 
the  average  density  of  five  districts  is  300.    Localities 
are  not  few  where  single  acres  contain  a  thousand  or    Tenement- 
more  people.    The  tenement-house  is  almost  univer-      system. 
sal.    The  best  as  well  as  the  worst  of  the  laboring 
class,  and  the  large  majority  of  the  middle  class,  live 
in  the  "  flats  "  of  stone  buildings  three  or  four  stories 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Census  of 
house  room. 


One-room 
and  two- 
room  fami- 
lies. 


Need  of 
inspection. 


high.  In  some  cases  two  or  three  hundred  people  use 
a  common  staircase,  and  much  greater  numbers  may 
be  found  using  common  passageways,  or  "  closes,"  as 
they  are  called  in  Scotland.  For  no  other  English- 
speaking  city,  as  far  as  I  am  aware,  are  the  statistics 
of  house  room  and  inhabitancy  so  complete  as  for 
Glasgow.  To  quote  Dr.  Russell,  the  distinguished 
medical  officer  of  the  city,  "  25  (24.7)  per  cent,  (of  the 
inhabitants  of  Glasgow)  live  in  houses  of  one  apart- 
ment ;  45  (44.7)  per  cent,  in  houses  of  two  apartments ; 
16  per  cent,  in  houses  of  three  apartments ;  6  per 
cent.  (6.1)  in  houses  of  four  apartments  ;  and  only  8 
per  cent,  in  houses  of  five  apartments  and  upward." 
This  simply  means  that  126,000  of  the  people  of  Glas- 
gow lived  in  single-room  housekeeping  quarters  in  ten- 
ement buildings,  and  228,000  in  two-room  quarters, 
at  the  time  of  the  census  of  1881.  In  Scotland  the 
word  "  tenement "  is  usually  applied  to  the  entire  build- 
ing, and  the  word  "  house  "  to  the  one  or  more  rooms 
arranged  for  the  occupancy  of  a  family;  thus  the 
ordinary  "  tenement "  contains  many  "  houses."  The 
census  of  1891  shows  a  cheering  improvement.  Dr. 
Russell  informs  us  that  whereas  in  1871  the  Glasgow 
population  living  in  houses  of  one  room  amounted  to 
30.4  per  cent,  of  the  whole,  the  proportion  had  fallen 
to  24.7  per  cent,  in  1881,  and  to  18  per  cent,  in  1891. 
The  proportion  of  two-room  dwellers,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  greatly  increased.  Thus  in  1891  there  were 
only  100,000  people  living  in  one-room  houses,  while 
nearly  264,000  were  in  two-room  houses,  this  class  of 
dwellers  constituting  47.5  per  cent,  of  all  the  people 
within  the  city  limits  at  the  time  of  the  census.  A 
population  thus  housed  might  well  give  employment 
to  an  army  of  sanitary  inspectors.  Glasgow's  extra- 
ordinary rapidity  of  growth  filled  the  tenements  with 
Irish  and  Highland  laborers  from  the  huts  of  the  ru- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


85 


ral  districts,  where  they  had  known  nothing  of  the 
relations  of  cleanliness  to  health,  and  where,  more- 
over, their  insanitary  modes  of  life  were  not  a  menace 
to  thousands  of  other  people.  Their  uncleanliness  in 
the  great  city  of  Glasgow  has  tempted  epidemics  and 
kept  the  death-rate  high. 

Among  these  overcrowded  tenements  the  epidemic 
inspectors  are  constantly  at  work  ferreting  out  cases 
of  infectious  disease.  Until  lately  the  law  did  not 
make  it  obligatory  upon  medical  practitioners  in  Scot- 
land to  report  cases  of  such  disease ;  but  their  volun- 
tary cooperation  with  the  Glasgow  department  was 
quite  general,  and  5230  cases  were  reported  at  the  of- 
fice in  1887,  making  a  total  of  9000  cases  registered. 
In  1892  there  were  12,171  cases  reported  at  the  office, 
and  3708  other  cases  were  discovered  by  the  inspec- 
tors. Scarlet  fever  and  measles  were  accountable 
for  the  vast  majority  of  these  cases.  The  epidemic 
inspectors  are  trained  men  who  have  usually  served 
in  the  higher  ranks  of  the  police  force.  The  nuisance 
inspectors  are  practical  men  who  understand  plumb- 
ing and  the  building  trades,  and  who  reported  in  1892 
nearly  30,000  "nuisances,"  practically  all  of  which 
were  in  consequence  remedied.  These  had  to  do  with 
defective  drains,  matters  of  water-supply,  garbage  ac- 
cumulations, offensive  ash-pits,  and  all  sorts  of  struc- 
tural defects,  decays,  and  unwholesome  conditions. 

The  work  of  the  night  inspectors  is  done  under  the 
authority  of  a  clause  in  the  Glasgow  police  act  which 
provides  for  the  measurement  of  all  houses  and  the 
ticketing  of  those  which  have  less  than  2000  cubic 
feet  of  space.  The  tickets  posted  on  the  doors  show 
the  maximum  number  who  may  occupy  the  house,  and 
the  night  inspection  is  to  prevent  overcrowding.  For, 
small  as  these  abodes  are,  great  numbers  of  them  take 
lodgers  in  addition  to  the  regular  family.  Fourteen 


CHAP.  IV. 


Epidemic 
inspectors. 


Nuisance 
inspectors. 


Night  in- 
spectors of 
"  ticketed  " 
houses. 


86 


MUNICIPAL  GOVEBNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Lodgers  in 
one-room 
houses. 


Air-space  of 

''ticketed" 

houses. 


Inspector  of 
lodging- 
houses. 


per  cent,  of  the  one-room  houses  and  27  per  cent,  of 
the  two-room  houses  take  lodgers.  In  a  recent  public 
address,  entitled  "Life  in  One  Room,"  Dr.  Russell, 
the  medical  officer,  remarked,  "Nor  must  I  permit  you, 
in  noting  down  the  tame  average  of  fully  three  in- 
mates in  each  of  these  one-apartment  houses,  to  remain 
ignorant  of  the  fact  that  there  are  thousands  of  these 
houses  which  contain  five,  six,  and  seven  inmates,  and 
hundreds  which  are  inhabited  by  from  eight  even  to 
thirteen."  A  recent  report  of  the  department  shows 
16,413  ticketed  one-room  houses,  and  6617  ticketed 
two-room  houses.  Of  these  one-room  houses,  3285 
contained  less  than  900  cubic  feet  of  space.  The  in- 
spection of  these  houses  is  of  immense  public  benefit ; 
but  the  undeviating  enforcement,  by  the  use  of  pains 
and  penalties,  of  the  rules  regulating  overcrowding,  is 
obviously  impossible.  The  inspectors  and  the  police 
magistrates  are  obliged  to  use  discrimination,  and  to 
deal  leniently  in  one  case  and  severely  in  another. 

A  change  in  the  law  has  now  made  it  obligatory,  in 
ticketing  the  houses,  to  increase  the  minimum  air- 
space allowed  for  each  adult  by  100  cubic  feet,  and  for 
each  child  by  50  feet,  above  the  allowance  made  by  the 
law  up  to  1890.  Mr.  Fyfe  explains  that  "  the  distur- 
bance of  population  caused  by  the  new  clause  amounts 
to  17£  per  cent.  That  is  to  say,  the  24,000  ticketed 
houses,  instead  of  being  legally  able  to  accommodate 
98,400  persons  (adults)  are  now  only  capable  of  legally 
accommodating  81,180." 

It  is  the  business  of  the  common  lodging-house  in- 
spector to  secure  the  registration  of  all  establishments 
of  the  sort  everywhere  known  as  lodging-houses,  to 
visit  them  frequently,  and  to  enforce  public  regula- 
tions which  have  wholly  transformed  these  places  in 
Glasgow.  But  I  shall  have  occasion  on  a  later  page 
to  refer  again  to  lodging-houses. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


87 


Women  as 

domiciliary 

visitors. 


Food 


The  work  of  "female  visitation,"  as  it  is  called,  CHAP. iv. 
among  the  poor  families  is  doubtless  productive  of 
great  good.  Statistics  cannot  adequately  express  the 
extent  and  significance  of  the  work  done  by  these 
lady  inspectors ;  but  it  is  worth  recording  that  in  the 
last  year  for  which  report  has  been  made  (1892)  they 
paid  some  75,000  visits  to  the  domiciles  of  their  poor 
constituents.  Their  suggestions  as  to  cleanliness  and 
household  reform  seem  to  carry  weight  by  virtue  of 
their  official  position.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say 
that  in  the  selection  of  ladies  for  this  work  care  is 
taken  to  obtain  the  services  of  those  who  have  tact, 
discretion,  and  sympathy. 

For  its  great  vigilance,  excellent  system,  and  general 
thoroughness,  the  work  of  food  inspection  in  Glasgow  inspection, 
is  to  be  commended.  Its  efficiency  is  somewhat  ham- 
pered by  the  law  (applicable  to  Scotland)  which  requires 
the  evidence  of  two  sales  of  an  adulterated  article 
instead  of  one.  The  milk-supply  has  the  constant  at- 
tention of  the  department.  All  dairies  and  milk-shops 
are  registered,  and  their  arrangements  are  subject  to 
approval  and  inspection.  On  the  present  list  are  about 
1200  places  where  milk  is  sold.  The  health  officer 
has  long  desired  authority  to  regulate  all  the  sources 
of  milk-supply,  in  order  to  prevent  the  bringing  of 
infection  into  the  city.  To  some  extent  this  is  now 
done.  The  farms  whence  the  city  is  supplied  are  all 
listed,  and  many  of  them  have  been  visited  for  inspec- 
tion of  their  sanitary  conditions.  But  the  laws  do 
not  as  yet  give  the  power  that  should  be  given  to  the 
sanitary  governments  of  all  cities  to  refuse  the  ad- 
mission of  milk  not  produced  under  approved  condi- 
tions. About  two  hundred  cases  of  typhoid  fever  at 
one  time  in  Glasgow  a  few  years  ago  were  traced 
directly  to  milk  from  a  certain  farm  where  the  cows 
drank  polluted  water. 


Milk  and 
dairies. 


88  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  But  I  must  pass  on  to  a  description  of  the  means 
used  by  Glasgow  for  the  isolation  and  treatment  of 
infectious  disease ;  for  the  health  authorities  long 
ago  discovered  —  what  some  American  cities  seem  so 
slow  to  learn  —  that  epidemics  are  not  inevitable  visi- 
tations, but  are  preventable.  Glasgow  had  suffered 
from  typhus  and  smallpox  and  cholera  and  other 
plagues  from  time  to  time,  and  had  depended  upon 
the  parochial  authorities  and  the  privately  managed 
hospitals  to  make  special  provisions  at  such  times  for 
the  epidemic  cases.  At  length,  in  that  series  of  health 
acts  passed  by  Parliament,  some  for  Scotland  as  a 
whole,  and  some  for  the  local  authorities  of  Glasgow, 
which  began  about  1855  and  which  is  yet  far  from 
ideally  complete,  it  was  provided  that  the  Privy  Coun- 
cil might,  by  order,  in  special  emergencies,  confer 
upon  the  local  authorities  temporary  powers  for  deal- 
ing with  epidemics  after  their  acknowledged  outbreak; 
these  powers  including  the  right  to  provide  "such 
medical  aid  and  such  accommodation  as  might  be 
required."  Serious  prevalence  of  typhus  in  1864  corn- 
Beginning  of  pelled  the  health  officer  to  look  to  the  authorities  for 
accommodation;  and  a  temporary  pavilion  hospital 
was  accordingly  opened.  Its  usefulness  was  so  great 
that  when,  in  1866,  the  Glasgow  police  act  was  re- 
vised, a  new  clause  compelled  the  local  authorities  to 
maintain  the  existing  hospital,  and  empowered  them 
to  open  others  for  the  reception  of  infectious  cases 
and  the  protection  of  the  public  against  epidemics. 
In  1869  typhus  compelled  the  enlargement  of  the 
original  hospital  to  250  beds,  and  in  the  next  year 
"  relapsing  "  fever  not  only  filled  these  quarters  with 
patients,  but  forced  the  authorities  to  make  additional 
provisions. 

They  acted  with  a  most  commendable  wisdom.    On 
the  extreme  eastern  edge  of  the  city  was  a  private 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


89 


estate,  called  Belvidere,  containing  rather  more  than 
thirty  acres,  and  sloping  beautifully  down  to  the  Clyde. 
It  was  purchased,  and  the  mansion-house  was  en- 
larged and  transformed  into  quarters  for  the  atten- 
dant physicians  and  nurses.  "Wards  were  hastily 
built  of  wood  in  the  detached-pavilion  form.  These 
have  gradually  been  replaced  by  permanent  pavilions 
of  brick  and  stone,  each  containing  two  wards.  The 
establishment  is  now  the  most  attractive  and  com- 
plete in  its  appointments  and  in  adaptation  to  its 
particular  purposes,  and  the  most  satisfactorily  ad- 
ministered, of  any  in  the  United  Kingdom,  if  not  in 
the  world.  It  has  accommodations  for  1000  patients, 
without  overcrowding  of  the  spacious  wards.  A 
technical  description  of  the  arrangements  of  this  in- 
stitution is  not  compatible  with  the  scope  of  my 
inquiry,  and  I  must  not  digress  in  that  direction. 
Thoroughly  compatible,  however,  is  a  discussion  of 
the  policy  of  the  Glasgow  authorities  in  giving  this 
place  the  semblance  of  a  lovely  village,  with  its  trees 
and  lawns,  its  playgrounds  and  beautiful  flower-gar- 
dens, with  its  separate  and  home-like  private  apart- 
ments instead  of  common  dormitories  for  the  eighty 
nurses,  and  with  convalescing-rooms  and  every  con- 
venience attached  to  each  sick- ward  —  when  it  would 
have  cost  much  less  money  to  build  a  big,  repulsive 
"  pest-house  "  and  inclose  it  with  a  grim  wall,  "  a  place 
for  sick  paupers  to  die." 

I  am  not  dealing  with  sentimental  considerations 
when  I  commend  this  policy.  The  difference  between 
popularity  and  unpopularity  in  a  public  hospital  for 
infectious  diseases  may  well  mean  all  the  difference 
between  a  terrible  epidemic  and  its  easy  prevention. 
What,  for  instance,  is  the  extra  cost  of  a  spacious  and 
attractive  hospital  where  it  is  actually  a  privilege  for 
a  poor  child  to  be  ill,  compared  with  the  frightful 


CHAP.  IV. 

The  insti- 
tution at 
Belvidere. 


Its  great 
attractive- 
ness. 


Consequen- 
ces of  this 
policy. 


90 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


A  popular 
hospital. 


Patronized 

by  rich  as 

well  as  by 

poor. 


cost,  direct  and  indirect,  entailed  upon  a  city  by  the 
prejudices  which  so  frequently  lead  to  the  secretion 
of  epidemic  patients  by  the  ignorant  poor?  In  a 
densely  populated  city  everything  depends  upon  the 
discovery  and  isolation  of  such  forms  of  disease  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment.  An  epidemic  destroys  val- 
uable lives,  and  it  also  paralyzes  trade  and  industry 
and  causes  immense  pecuniary  loss.  It  is  the  endeavor 
of  Glasgow  to  treat  infectious  cases  with  such  care 
and  tenderness,  and  such  affluence  of  all  that  modern 
invention  and  science  can  suggest,  as  to  secure  ready 
cooperation  from  all  classes  in  the  work  of  isolating 
infection.  The  plan  is  growingly  successful.  After 
the  average  sojourn  of  six  weeks  at  Belvidere,  patients 
are  reluctant  to  leave ;  and  they  carry  wonderful  tales 
back  to  the  tenement-rows.  The  Belvidere  nurses  are 
ladies ;  and  the  city  gives  them  such  accommodations 
as,  in  their  arduous  and  necessarily  secluded  work, 
they  might  reasonably  desire.  The  smallpox  wards 
are  built  separately,  and  in  fact  the  smallpox  hospital 
is  entirely  distinct  in  all  its  departments ;  but  when 
there  are  no  smallpox  patients,  some  of  the  wards  are 
used  for  scarlet  fever,  measles,  or  other  diseases,  and 
the  whole  group  of  buildings  is  administered  as  one 
great  fever  hospital.  It  should  be  said  that  the  rich 
as  well  as  the  poor  may,  and  do,  avail  themselves  freely 
of  the  privileges  of  this  hospital,  especially  for  scarlet 
fever  and  measles.  The  average  daily  number  of  pa- 
tients in  1887  was  332,  and  the  total  number  received 
in  the  year  was  about  3000.  Dr.  Allan,  the  accom- 
plished medical  superintendent,  agrees  with  Dr.  Rus- 
sell, the  health  officer,  in  regarding  the  establishments 
at  Belvidere  as  large  enough  for  the  highest  efficiency. 
In  1892  there  were  5282  infectious  cases  removed  to 
hospital,  and  a  temporary  establishment  was  fitted  up 
to  relieve  Belvidere  in  a  season  of  unprecedented  epi- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  91 

demies  of  measles  and  scarlet  fever.    Meanwhile,  the    CHAP.  iv. 
city  had  acquired  land  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  city 
for  its  second  permanent  epidemic  hospital $  and  it  is     gr<Stepi- 
now  under  construction.    No  effort  will  be  spared  to     epitki.08" 
make  its  appointments  even  more  perfect  if  possible 
than  those  of  Belvidere.    Glasgow  will  now  have  in- 
vested more  than  a  million  dollars  of  capital  outlay 
in  municipal  hospitals  for  infectious  diseases,  and  no 
expenditure  could  have  been  more  advantageous  and 
profitable. 
Not  the  least  important  feature  of  the  Health  Depart- 

The  sanitary 

ment's  work  in  Glasgow  are  the  sanitary  wash-houses,  wash-houses. 
A  similar  establishment  should  be  a  part  of  the  mu- 
nicipal economy  of  every  large  town.  In  1864  the 
authorities  found  it  necessary  to  superintend  the  dis- 
infection of  dwellings,  and  a  small  temporary  wash- 
house  was  opened,  with  a  few  tubs  for  the  cleansing 
of  apparel,  etc.,  removed  from  infected  houses.  For 
a  time  after  the  acquisition  of  Belvidere,  a  part  of  the 
laundry  of  the  hospital  was  used  for  the  purpose  of  a 
general  sanitary  wash-house.  But  larger  quarters  be- 
ing needed,  a  separate  establishment  was  built  and 
opened  in  1883,  its  cost  being  about  $50,000.  This 
place  is  so  admirable  in  its  system  and  its  mechanical 
appointments  that  I  am  again  tempted  to  digress  with 
a  technical  description.  The  place  is  in  constant  com- 
munication with  sanitary  headquarters,  and  its  col- 
lecting-wagons are  on  the  road  early  every  morning. 
The  larger  part  of  the  articles  removed  for  disinfec- 
tion and  cleansing  must  be  returned  on  the  same  day, 
Co  meet  the  necessities  of  poor  families.  I  visited  the 
house  on  a  day  when  1800  pieces,  from  25  different 
families,  had  come  in.  In  1887,  6700  washings,  aggre- 
gating 380,000  pieces,  were  done.  The  quantity,  of 
course,  varies  from  year  to  year  with  the  amount  of 
infectious  disease  in  the  city.  Thus  in  1892  more  than 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV 


Increased 
facilities. 


Crematory 

for  infected 

articles. 


Disinfection 
staff. 


A  novel 
kind  of  hos- 
pitality. 


Suppression 
of  certain 
diseases. 


700,000  articles  were  washed.  Very  recently,  in  1894, 
there  has  been  opened  at  Ruchill,  at  the  west  end 
of  Glasgow,  a  new  and  still  larger  sanitary  wash- 
house,  the  buildings  and  machinery  costing  not  less 
than  $75,000.  It  occupies  two  acres  of  the  38-acre 
tract  which  had  been  secured  for  the  new  infectious- 
diseases  hospital.  The  establishment  has  a  crematory, 
to  which  all  household  articles  whatsoever  that  are  to 
be  burned  after  a  case  of  infectious  disease  must  be 
brought  by  the  vans  of  the  Sanitary  Department.  The 
carpet-cleaning  machinery  and  the  arrangements  for 
disinfection  by  steam,  by  chemicals,  and  by  boiling  I 
cannot  here  describe. 

The  Health  Department's  disinfecting  and  white- 
washing staff  is  operated  from  the  wash-house  as  head- 
quarters. A  patient  being  removed  to  the  hospital, 
the  authorities  at  once  take  possession  of  the  house 
for  cleansing  and  disinfection.  It  is  a  point  of  interest 
also  that  the  city  has  provided  a  comfortable  "  house  of 
reception  "  of  some  ten  rooms,  with  several  permanent 
servants,  where  families  may  be  entertained  for  a  day 
or  more  as  the  city's  guests  if  it  is  desirable  to  remove 
them  from  their  homes  during  the  progress  of  the  dis- 
infecting and  clothes-washing  operations.  This  house 
is  kept  in  constant  use,  and  it  is  found  a  very  conve- 
nient thing  for  the  department  to  have  at  its  disposal. 

As  net  results  of  the  sanitary  work  of  the  Glasgow 
authorities  may  be  mentioned  the  almost  entire  ex- 
tinction of  some  of  the  worst  forms  of  contagious  dis- 
ease, and  a  mastery  of  the  situation  which  leaves  no 
ground  for  much  fear  of  wide-spread  epidemics  in  the 
future,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Glasgow  is  a  great 
seaport,  has  an  unfavorable  climate,  and  has  an  extra- 
ordinarily dense  and  badly  housed  working  popula- 
tion. The  steady  decline  of  the  total  death-rate,  and 
its  remarkably  rapid  decline  as  regards  those  diseases 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


93 


at  which  sanitary  science  more  especially  aims  its 
weapons,  are  achievements  which  are  a  proper  source 
of  gratification  to  the  town  council  and  the  officers  of 
the  Health  Department. 

In  close  affiliation  with  the  Sanitary  Department, 
and  under  the  superintendence  of  the  same  general 
committee  of  the  common  council,  is  the  Cleansing 
Department.  While  for  administrative  purposes  it  is 
a  distinct  service,  it  seems  to  me  important  to  make 
conspicuous  the  fact  that  the  street-sweeping,  garbage- 
disposal,  street-watering,  and  other  work  of  this  im- 
portant public  department  are  a  part  of  the  sanitary 
government.  Health  considerations  come  first.  It  is 
the  business  of  the  Superintendent  of  Cleansing  not 
merely  to  manage  his  department  to  the  greatest  pos- 
sible economic  advantage,  but  to  manage  it  pri- 
marily in  such  a  way  as  to  satisfy  a  fastidious  medical 
officer  of  health.  Mr.  John  Young,  for  a  number  of 
years  at  the  head  of  this  department,  has  made  it 
a  model  of  efficiency.  To  use  Mr.  Young's  own  lan- 
guage, the  work  of  the  department  "  embraces  (1)  the 
scavenging  of  all  courts  and  back  yards  forming  a 
common  access  to  lands  and  heritages  separately  oc- 
cupied ;  (2)  the  scavenging  and  watering  of  all  the 
streets  and  roads  within  the  city;  and  (3)  the  collec- 
tion, removal,  and  disposal  of  all  night-soil,  general 
domestic  refuse,  and  detritus." 

The  propriety  of  cleansing  private  courts  and  pas- 
sageways at  public  expense  is  better  considered  in 
the  practical  than  in  the  theoretical  aspects.  Glasgow 
has  a  population  of  which  more  than  90  per  cent,  live 
in  closely  built  tenement-structures,  and  of  which  70 
per  cent,  live  in  houses  of  one  or  two  rooms.  Health 
demands  that  the  common  courts  and  stairs  be  kept 
clean.  Experience  shows  that  if  done  properly  the 
owners  would  pay  their  private  employees  more  .than 


CHAP.  IV. 


The  work 
of  public 
cleansing. 


Must  satisfy 

the  health 

officer. 


Three  bran- 
ches of  the 
service. 


Cleansing 
private  pas- 
sages and 
stairs. 


94 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


Street- 
cleaning. 


CHAP.  iv.  the  small  tax  —  one  penny  in  the  pound  sterling  of 
rental  value  —  which  is  collected  of  them  as  a  special 
rating  for  this  purpose.  There  are  11,000  of  these 
courts,  etc.,  to  be  kept  clean,  some  of  which  have  to  be 
cleansed  two  or  even  three  times  in  a  day,  and  all  at 
The  system,  least  once  a  day.  For  this  work  the  main  cleansing 
districts  are  subdivided  into  sections,  which  are  laid 
off  into  about  200  beats,  each  of  which  is  cleansed  by 
one  man  under  the  supervision  of  a  section  foreman. 

The  streets  (181  miles)  are  swept  nightly,  most  of 
the  work  being  done  by  twenty-three  horse-machines, 
which  are  followed  by  the  department's  removal-carts. 
A  good  feature  of  this  work  are  the  iron  boxes  or 
bins,  with  hinged  lids,  sunk  in  the  sidewalks  next  the 
curbing  along  the  principal  streets  at  intervals  of 
forty  yards.  Men  and  boys  are  kept  busy  brushing 
up  the  day  litter  and  depositing  it  in  the  boxes,  the 
contents  of  which  are  removed  by  night  with  the 
sweepings. 

The  summer  street-sprinkling  is  also  done  by  the 
Cleansing  Department;  and  it  is  done  with  great 
economy,  for  the  simple  reason  that  the  amount  of 
the  street-cleansing  work  varies  inversely  to  the 
amount  of  street-sprinkling  required;  and  so  the 
regular  force  of  men  and  horses  employed  to  keep 
the  streets  clean  during  the  rest  of  the  year  is  suffi- 
cient to  do  that  work  and  the  watering  besides  in  the 
summer  months.  The  sidewalks  of  Glasgow  are  left 
to  be  swept  by  owners  and  occupants,  who  are,  of 
course,  required  to  keep  them  clean.  The  system  as 
a  whole  results  in  well-cleansed  thoroughfares. 

The  third  distinct  portion  of  the  work  of  the  Cleans- 
ing Department  is  the  collection  and  disposal  of  do- 
mestic refuse  and  night-soil ;  and  this  is  more  difficult 
and  expensive  than  the  other  two  portions  combined. 
For  this  service  the  city  is  divided  into  several  main 


Sprinkling 
the  streets. 


Garbage 
removal. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  95 

districts,  regard  being  had  in  this  division  to  the  CHAP.  iv. 
points  of  outlet.  The  central  or  business  part  of  the 
city  is  served  by  daily  morning  dust-carts,  each  house 
being  provided  with  a  special  form  of  covered  bucket 
which  facilitates  collection.  As  regards  the  great 
bulk  of  the  population,  living  in  tenement-houses,  it 
has  been  found  best  to  collect  refuse,  including  such 
excrementitious  matter  as  is  not  carried  down  the 
sewers,  from  improved  "ash-bins  "  in  the  back  courts. 

-r-ii  •         T    ,    •    ,    i  n  n  i    •         A  complete 

Each  main  district  has  a  force  of  men  engaged  in  system. 
emptying  these  bins  and  wheeling  the  contents  out 
to  meet  the  night-carts  which  ply  between  the  district 
and  the  nearest  "despatch  station"  of  the  depart- 
ment. It  should  be  explained  that  each  district  is 
subdivided  for  this  work  into  six  sections,  one  section 
being  cleansed  every  night,  and  the  entire  city  being 
thus  served  once  a  week.  As  the  use  of  the  water- 
closet  system  is  becoming  more  general,  the  amount 
of  excrementitious  matter  to  be  collected  by  the  de- 
partment decreases.  But  many  large  factories,  be- 
sides the  numerous  "public  conveniences"  on  the 
streets,  make  use  of  the  "pail-closet"  system,  the 
pails  being  very  frequently  exchanged  and  the  re- 
moval to  the  despatch  stations  being  in  covered  vans. 
This  system  of  scavenging  is  as  thorough  in  execu- 
tion as  it  is  methodical  and  complete  in  its  plan. 

There  are  three  principal  and  several  minor  de- 
spatch stations.  The  most  approved  in  their  appoint- 
ments are  the  one  known  as  the  "Crawford  Street  stations.0 
Works,"  opened  in  1884,  and  that  at  Kelvinhaugh, 
which  dates  from  1891.  Stated  briefly,  it  is  the  policy 
of  the  department  to  send  out  as  manure  to  the  farms 
just  as  large  a  proportion,  in  bulk  and  weight,  of  the 
street-sweepings  and  general  refuse  as  can  be  made  a 
marketable  article.  At  Crawford  street  the  carts  drive 
across  a  weighing  platform  to  a  great  dumping  and 


96  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  sorting  floor.  Street-sweepings,  after  a  little  raking 
to  remove  newspapers  and  large  articles,  are  shoveled 
through  hatchways,  without  further  treatment,  into 
railway  wagons  standing  on  the  lowest  floor.  The 
contents  of  the  ash-bins  are  passed  through  great  re- 
volving double  riddles  or  separating-machines.  The 

The  sorting  ° 

process,  larger  cinders  are  sorted  out  and  furnish  fuel  for  the 
establishment's  boilers.  The  finer  ashes  and  cinders 
pass  down  to  the  floor  below  into  the  mixing-ma- 
chines, where  they  are  met  by  the  discharges  from 
the  tanks  holding  excrementa.  The  newspapers,  old 
baskets,  boots,  bricks,  broken  furniture,  etc.,  pass  from 
the  riddles  to  a  sorting  floor  and  thence  down  flumes 

Crematory 

furnaces,  to  the  crematory  furnaces,  where  they  burn  furiously 
without  the  aid  of  any  other  fuel,  a  chimney  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  feet  high  making  a  strong  air-draft. 
The  expense  of  a  much  closer  cremation  and  of  the 
drying  and  condensation  of  manure,  which  is  neces- 
sary in  the  large  English  towns  from  lack  of  a  mar- 
ket for  bulky  fertilizers,  is  avoided  in  Glasgow.  The 
heavy,  cold  Scotch  soil  is  improved  by  a  coarse  and 
ashy  manure  that  could  not  be  used  in  the  middle 
counties  of  England.  The  sweepings  of  the  macadam- 
ized roads,  which  are  not  salable,  are  used  by  the  citv, 

Road-sweep-  .  7  •       * 

ings  used  on  on  its  own  bog-redeemed  farm  of  "  Fulwood  Moss," 
farm.  for  filling,  "  top-dressing,"  etc.  The  total  quantity  of 
material  carted  by  the  department  for  the  year  ending 
May  31,  1893,  was  in  excess  of  361,000  tons,  and  the 
amount  of  manure  sold  was  276,000  tons  —  the  differ- 
ence being  made  up  of  snow,  drainage  of  water  from 
muddy  sweepings,  materials  cremated,  and  macadam- 
sweepings.  This  is  a  remarkable  record.  The  ma- 
nure is  sold  in  fifteen  counties,  much  of  it  going  sixty 
or  seventy  miles.  The  city  owns  its  railway  wagons 
fertilizers,  (seven  hundred  of  them),  and  has  an  arrangement 
with  all  the  roads  by  which  the  manure  is  carried  for 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


97 


one  halfpenny  (one  cent)  per  ton  per  mile,  cars  re- 
turned free.  It  would  be  for  the  obvious  advantage 
of  the  city  to  send  out  the  largest  possible  quantity 
even  if  nothing  more  than  freight  charges  were  re- 
ceived. The  net  proceeds  are,  however,  from  twenty- 
five  to  fifty  cents  a  ton. 

The  operations  of  this  department  are  a  charge  upon 
the  general  police  rate,  excepting  the  cleansing  of  pri- 
vate courts  and  tenement  stairs,  which  is  paid  for  by 
the  proprietors  benefited  by  means  of  a  special  levy 
of  one  penny  per  pound  of  rental  value.  There  were 
employed,  on  the  average,  throughout  the  year  1894, 
1053  men — 537  in  domestic  scavenging,  232  in  private 
street  and  court  cleaning,  and  284  in  public  street  sca- 
venging and  sprinkling.  The  city  has  invested  more 
than  a  million  dollars  in  works  and  plant,  much  of  this 
amount  having  been  lately  expended  to  provide  for 
the  enlarged  area  and  population  secured  by  incorpo- 
ration of  suburbs.  Noteworthy  is  the  acquisition  of 
the  so-called  Ryding  estate  of  nearly  six  hundred  acres, 
which,  like  "  Fulwood  Moss,"  will  be  conducted  as  a 
municipal  farm  and  a  place  for  the  advantageous  dis- 
position of  a  great  city's  refuse.  The  total  ordinary 
expenditure  of  the  department  in  1888,  including  in- 
terest, was  $370,000.  Sales  of  manure  brought  in  a 
revenue  of  $130,000,  and  after  deducting  the  cost  of 
the  private-court  scavenging  met  by  special  assess- 
ment, there  remained  only  $190,000  of  general  charge 
to  be  paid  out  of  the  rates  for  an  admirable  and  com- 
plete service  of  street  cleansing  and  watering  and  of 
domestic  scavenging  for  a  population  of  nearly  600,000 
— a  net  cost  per  capita  of  only  about  thirty -five  cents. 
And  this  economy  is  the  more  noteworthy  from  the 
fact  that  the  ruling  motive  of  the  department  is  that 
of  the  health  officer  and  sanitary  engineer  rather  than 
that  of  the  contractor.  Since  1890  the  tendency  has 


CHAP.  IV. 


Railway 
service. 


Number  of 
scavengers 
employed. 


A  second 

municipal 

farm. 


Finances  of 

Cleansing 

Department. 


I.— 7 


98  MUNICIPAL   GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  been  toward  an  increased  relative  expenditure.  Nev- 
ertheless, the  cost  to  the  ratepayers  is  trifling  in  com- 
parison with  the  magnificent  service  that  the  Cleansing 
Department  renders.  I  am  tempted  to  go  into  some 

Purchase  of  Details  °^  ^ne  method  used  by  Superintendent  Young 
supplies,  in  buying  supplies  (horse-feed,  etc.)  for  his  large  op- 
erations. His  department  has  reduced  these  matters 
to  so  economical  and  businesslike  a  basis  that  it  has 
become  purveyor  to  the  Fire  Department,  the  Police 
Department,  the  Sanitary  Department,  the  Markets 
Department,  and  the  Parks  and  Gardens  Department, 
all  of  which  to  a  less  extent  are  horse-keeping  branches 
of  the  municipal  administration. 

Shortly  after  the  extension  of  Glasgow's  boundaries 

in  1846,  and  the  consequent  reorganization  of  the 

municipal  government,  public  attention  was  forcibly 

The  develop-  drawn  to  the  frightfully  crowded  and  insanitary  con- 

ment  of  J  J 

slums.  dition  of  the  central  parts  of  the  city.  The  success 
which  had  followed  the  city's  brave  efforts  to  enlarge 
and  deepen  the  tiny  Clyde  into  a  great  ocean  highway 
had  been  attended  with  a  most  extraordinary  develop- 
ment of  industries  in  the  Clyde  valley,  and  growth  of 
urban  population.  The  more  fortunate  classes  moved 
out  of  their  old  homes  in  the  central  district  of  the 
town  to  the  handsome  West  End  suburbs.  The  busi- 
ness core  shifted  somewhat  also,  and  the  old  buildings 
were  packed  with  an  operative  class  which  Glasgow's 
new  prosperity  had  drawn  by  scores  of  thousands 
from  the  Highlands  and  from  Ireland.  Most  of 
these  people  lived  there  in  single-room  apartments, 
and  in  unwholesome  conditions  which  will  not  be 
readily  comprehended  by  future  generations.  Epi- 
demics, originating  in  these  filthy  and  overcrowded 
quarters,  invaded  the  homes  of  the  better  classes,  and 
self-protection  made  some  measures  of  reform  a  ne- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


99 


cessity.  It  was  resolved  by  the  town  council  to  set 
aside  $150,000  for  the  acquisition  of  property  in  some 
of  the  worst  neighborhoods  j  but  while  a  considerable 
investment  was  made  in  condemned  tenement-struc- 
tures, the  work  of  building  others  on  the  same  bad 
models  was  going  on  apace.  At  length  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  make  inquiry  and  report  to  the  coun- 
cil upon  the  sanitary  laws  and  arrangements  of  the 
large  cities  and  towns  of  the  kingdom.  Mr.  John 
Carrick,  who  was  a  member  of  that  committee,  and 
who  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1890  was  the  efficient 
city  architect  and  master  of  public  works,  after  nearly 
half  a  century  of  inestimably  valuable  service  in  the 
municipal  government  of  Glasgow,  is  the  principal 
source  of  my  information  upon  this  subject.  The 
report  was  made  in  1859.  It  observes: 

Originally  the  "  closes"  and  lanes  of  the  city  were  not  all  ob- 
jectionable. The  houses  were  of  moderate  height,  and  unbuilt 
spaces  were  attached  to  many  of  the  dwellings,  and  promoted 
ventilation.  Now,  however,  in  those  localities  almost  every  spare 
inch  of  ground  has  been  built  upon,  until  room  cannot  be  found 
to  lay  down  an  ash-pit.  Houses,  too,  which  were  only  intended 
to  accommodate  single  families  have  been  increased  in  height, 
and  are  found  tenanted  by  separate  families  in  every  apartment, 
until  they  appear  to  teem  with  inhabitants.  ...  A  worse  state 
was  disclosed  by  an  inspection  of  some  of  the  more  recently 
erected  houses  for  the  working-classes.  Tenements  of  great 
height  are  ranged  on  either  side  of  narrow  lanes  with  no  back- 
yard space,  and  are  divided  from  top  to  bottom  into  numberless 
small  dwellings  all  crowded  with  occupants.  Occupation  of 
cellars  and  sunk  flats  as  dwelling-houses  is  largely  on  the  in- 
crease. 

These  quotations  will  show  the  nature  of  the  evil. 
As  remedial  measures  the  committee  advised  that  new 
police  powers  be  obtained  from  Parliament  Jo  deal 
with  the  height  of  buildings,  the  size  of  apartments, 
the  area  and  backyard  spaces,  the  lighting  and  venti- 


CHAP.  IV. 


Beginnings 
of  reform. 


Housing 

conditions 

in  1859. 


Remedies 
proposed. 


100  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  lation,  the  provision  of  water-closet  and  ash-pit  ac- 
commodations, ample  water-supply,  and  so  on.  It 
was  further  advised  that  the  new  legislation  for  Glas- 
gow should  increase  the  powers  conferred  on  local  au- 
thorities by  the  General  Nuisance  Removal  Act  (Scot- 
land) of  1856,  and  that  specific  authority  should  be 
obtained  for  the  appointment  of  a  competent  medical 
officer  and  staff  of  nuisance  inspectors ;  for  the  pre- 
vention of  overcrowding  apartments  by  regulating 
the  maximum  number  of  inmates  on  the  basis  of  their 
air-space ;  for  the  prevention  of  the  use  of  sunk  floors 
as  dwellings;  for  compelling  owners  to  cleanse  and 
whitewash  house  property ;  and  to  prevent  the  dis- 
charge of  refuse  from  certain  factories  and  works  into 
the  common  drains.  It  was  still  further  recommended 
that  all  ashes  and  night-soil  be  made  the  property  of 
the  city,  and  that  all  proceedings  under  the  new  police 
act  be  taken  summarily  before  the  city  magistrates. 
Special  suggestions  were  added,  to  the  effect  that 
powers  be  obtained  from  Parliament  to  acquire  prop- 
erty for  the  sake  of  sanitary  improvement,  upon  pay- 
ment to  the  proprietors  of  sums  to  be  fixed  in  the  last 
resort  by  competent  tribunals,  and  that  public  baths 
and  wash-houses  be  built  and  opened  for  the  benefit 
of  the  working-classes. 

I  have  enumerated  these  propositions  at  some  length 
because  at  that  time  they  were  so  novel  and  so  far  in 
advance  of  prevailing  notions.  With  great  difficulty 

granted,  the  desired  legislation  was  secured,  in  1862,  for  the 
brief  and  experimental  term  of  five  years.  To  short- 
en the  story,  let  it  be  said  that  in  1866  the  Glasgow 
police  act  was  renewed,  with  amendments,  and  made 
permanent ;  and  under  its  wise  provisions  have  been 
develqped  those  admirable  sanitary  and  cleansing  ser- 
vices which  I  have  already  described.  But  in  1866 
those  parts  of  the  earlier  act  which  related  to  the  pur- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  101 

chase  and  improvement  of  property  were  made  parts    CHAP.  iv. 
of  another  famous  enactment  of  the  same  year,  by 
which  the  town  council  was  constituted  an  improve-    "improve- 
ment trust  for  the  carrying  out  of  certain  definite  "Tfiseo? 
objects  specified  in  the  act.    It  had  become  constantly 
more  apparent  that  drastic  measures  must  be  taken 
with  the  old  part  of  the  city.    Nothing  short  of  very 
extensive  demolitions  could  remedy  the  evil.    There 
were  practically  no  streets  at  all ;  but  only  a  system 
of  "  wynds,  vennels,  and  closes,"  permeating  an  almost 
solid  mass  of  tenement-houses. 

Other  large  British  towns  have  followed  the  example 
set  by  Glasgow ;  and  demolition,  street-widening,  and 
improved  construction  under  public  auspices  are  no 

i  ii  T>    L  rvt  -A.     i         i  j  -L  Glasgow  as 

longer  a  novelty.  But  Glasgow,  it  should  be  remem-  a  pioneer 
bered,  had  the  courage  to  lead  the  way ;  and  the  Glas-  'reforms!8 
gow  City  Improvements  Act  furnished  Lord  Cross 
with  the  model  upon  which  his  Improved  Dwellings 
Act  was  constructed.  Glasgow's  action  was  hastened 
by  the  fact  that  several  railway  companies  were  seek- 
ing access  to  the  heart  of  the  city  for  great  terminal 
grounds  and  buildings,  and  the  time  seemed  especially 
opportune  for  a  rearrangement  and  improvement  of 
streets.  As  laid  before  Parliament  in  1865,  the  scheme 
covered  an  area  of  88  acres,  which  then  contained  a 
population  of  51,294 ;  the  average  mortality  of  the  area 
for  some  years  past  being  38.64  per  thousand,  with  epi- 
demic diseases  the  cause  of  36  per  cent,  of  the  deaths. 

i      ^sm  Statistics  of 

The  average  density  was  nearly  600  to  the  acre,  and  the  improve- 
in  various  parts  of  the  district  it  exceeded  1000 — the     scheme, 
total  inhabitancy  of  the  city  then  being  423,723,  cov- 
ering an  area  of  5063  acres,  and  showing  therefore  an 
average  density  of  83  as  contrasted  with  583  in  the 
area  to  be  dealt  with.    The  financial  side  of  the  scheme 
looked  plausible.    The  initial  outlay  was  estimated  at 
about  $7,250,000,  and  it  was  expected  that  the  re-sale 


102 


MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Its  enlarged 
scope. 


Financial 
status. 


of  building-sites  would  pay  back  all  but  $750,000.  A 
new  park  was  to  be  made  at  a  cost  of  $200,000,  and 
the  paving  and  sewering  of  three  or  four  miles  of  new- 
made  streets  was  estimated  at  $325,000.  For  all  the 
advantages  of  improved  streets,  improved  health,  and 
improved  general  appearance  of  the  town,  the  rate- 
payers were  not  to  be  charged  at  all  dearly. 

The  council  committee  which  carried  out  the  im- 
provements acquired  some  further  powers  and  did 
more  than  was  originally  contemplated.  Besides  pur- 
chasing the  88  acres  and  some  other  small  areas  in 
the  crowded  parts  of  the  city,  they  acquired  and  laid 
out  in  streets  and  squares  for  working-men's  residences 
two  estates  known  as  "  Overnewton  n  and  "  Oatlands." 
They  also  formed  an  important  open  space,  the  "  Ca- 
thedral Square,"  in  a  densely  populated  neighborhood, 
and  carried  out  other  large  enterprises  not  at  first  in 
the  list.  Their  operations  were  very  vigorous  from 
1869  to  1876,  and  were  coincident  with,  if  not  directly 
the  cause  of,  much  house-building  and  real-estate  spec- 
ulation in  Glasgow.  A  considerable  amount  of  the 
property  acquired  by  the  trustees  was  disposed  of  on 
good  terms;  but  there  came  a  general  reaction, —  due 
in  part  to  idle  shipyards, —  a  marked  decline  in  the 
price  of  land,  and  a  cessation  of  sales.  For  some  years 
the  improvement  trust  was  obliged  to  hold  a  large 
amount  of  property  at  a  reduced  valuation.  The 
total  cost  of  all  its  purchases  and  improvements,  not 
including  interest  charges,  has  been  about  $10,000,000. 
For  lands  sold  there  has  been  received  approximately 
$5,000,000.  The  property  still  held  by  the  trust  is 
valued,  at  present  reduced  prices,  at  less  than  its  cost. 
The  margin  of  shrinkage  has,  however,  been  practi- 
cally covered  by  current  taxation,  so  that  the  account 
now  stands  about  even  ;  i.e.,  the  assets  and  liabilities 
of  the  trust  are  at  a  balance.  The  act  authorized  an 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


103 


annual  assessment  of  sixpence  in  the  pound  of  rental 
valuation,  but  the  trustees  have  steadily  reduced  the 
levy  until  it  is  now  only  a  halfpenny. 

The  principal  improvement  made  is  a  system  of 
modern  streets  in  the  center  of  the  city  that  will  be 
of  advantage  for  centuries,  and  will  repay  the  cost 
hundreds  of  times  over.  Twenty-nine  new  streets 
have  been  formed  and  twenty-five  old  ones  greatly  wi- 
dened and  improved.  The  old  insanitary  tenement 
property  has  not  all  been  demolished.  The  plan  was 
adopted  of  tearing  out  intermediate  buildings,  open- 
ing back  courts  where  none  existed,  and  otherwise 
ameliorating  such  property  as  the  new  streets  and 
the  wide  swaths  cut  by  the  elevated  tracks  of  the  in- 
vading railways  left  still  inhabited.  In  fact  the  busi- 
ness depression  which  checked  operations,  and  dis- 
couraged and  alarmed  all  Glasgow  for  the  time  being, 
made  the  city  improvement  trust  unpopular,  and 
obliged  the  council  to  proceed  cautiously.  The  city 
is,  therefore,  to-day  a  landlord  on  a  large  scale,  and  is 
holding  really  insanitary  property  for  the  sake  of  the 
rents,  waiting  for  an  opportunity  to  sell  the  sites  be- 
fore demolishing  the  buildings.  Its  rents  now  bring 
in  annually  about  $100,000,  which  sum  goes  far  to- 
ward offsetting  the  interest  charge  on  the  property 
held  for  sale.  The  improvement  trust  has  given  the 
city,  among  other  things,  the  handsome  new  Alexan- 
dra Park.  Since  1892  the  trust  has,  in  various  ways, 
assumed  a  fresh  activity.  The  enlargement  of  the 
city  has  made  necessary  new  tasks  of  reform,  and  it 
is  expected  that  Parliament  will  give  renewed  and 
greatly  extended  powers,  under  which  various  other 
areas  of  Glasgow  will  be  subject  to  compulsory  pur- 
chase and  reconstruction  of  streets  and  houses. 

It  remains  for  me  to  speak  of  the  model  tenements, 
and  of  the  important  series  of  model  lodging-houses, 


CHAP.  IV. 


The  new 
street  sys- 
tem. 


Dealing 

with  the 

tenements. 


The  city  as 
landlord. 


Renewed 
activities. 


104  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.     which  this  department  has  ventured  to  erect  and 
maintain  as  a  part  of  its  reform  work. 

It  was  the  original  understanding  that  the  city's 
work  was  to  be  that  of  demolition,  and  that  private 
enterprise,  regulated  by  the  new  sanitary  rules  and 
requirements,  would  suffice  for  proper  reconstruction 
and  would  make  due  provision  for  the  displaced  popu- 
lation. Bather  early  in  their  operations,  however,  the 
Model  muni-  committee  found  it  advantageous  to  build  one  or  two 

cTnents?e  tenement-houses  as  a  model  and  example  of  proper 
arrangements  and  construction;  and  it  may  be  as- 
sumed that  a  good  influence  was  thus  exerted  upon 
the  character  of  the  large  amount  of  new  house-room 
that  builders  were  at  that  time  providing.  These 
were,  however,  only  incidental  undertakings.  More 
recently  the  council  committee  has  gone  into  im- 
proved-tenement building  on  a  larger  scale,  and,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  with  more  doubtful  propriety.  On  Salt- 
market  street,  in  a  very  central  locality  and  on  the 
site  of  old  tenement-houses  which  had  been  removed, 
the  improvements  committee  in  1888  expended  $50,- 
000  in  building  a  row  of  solid  tenement-houses,  with 
a  dozen  shop-rooms  on  the  ground  floor ;  and  subse- 
quently there  were  additional  houses  of  like  character 
built  on  the  same  street.  The  twofold  object  was 
avowed  of  bringing  back  population  to  a  neighbor- 
hood comparatively  empty,  and  of  getting  some  re- 
turn for  valuable  property  that  had  been  lying  un- 
productive, vainly  awaiting  purchasers.  But  it  would 
seem  a  mistake  to  attempt  to  draw  population  back 
to  the  heart  of  the  city.  It  is  the  peculiarity  of  Glas- 
gow that  the  laboring  people  live  on  the  inner  circle 
°higth^  of  their  work;  and  this  has  been  so  frequently  de- 
plored that  it  would  seem  decidedly  a  reactionary 
move  for  the  authorities  themselves  to  build  tene- 
ments with  the  view  to  bring  back  the  very  people 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  105 

whose  dispersion  to  the  suburbs  has  always  been  re-  CHAP.  iv. 
garded  as  so  important  a  desideratum.  It  was,  how- 
ever, the  best  class  of  working  people  for  whom  the 
city  provided  these  new  houses,  and  the  real  motive 
seemed  to  be  the  promotion  of  a  market  for  the  adja- 
cent property.  Whether  wise  or  unwise,  the  experi- 
ment was  not  upon  a  sufficiently  large  scale  to  have 
very  significant  results.  But  now  the  committee  has 

,    .  ,  ...  ,.  „  ,      .,,.  Municipal 

entered  in  a  larger  way  upon  this  policy  ot  building  house-buiw- 
municipal  tenement-houses.    In  1893  a  new  row  of  larg"? 
thirteen  tenements  in  the  same  neighborhood  was  be- 
gun, containing  twelve  shops  and  127  houses  for  work- 
ing people;  and  two  or  three  other  like  projects  have 
been  resolved  upon.    Thus  the  municipality  becomes 
the  landlord  of  several  hundred  families,  for  whom  it 
has  provided  what  it  deems  to  be  a  model  type  of  ten- 
ement-house. 

Much  more  important  and  interesting  is  the  experi-  The 
ence  of  Glasgow  in  providing  common  lodging-houses. 
Every  large  city  has  a  transient  and  shifting  element 
that  finds  accommodation  in  the  cheap  lodging-houses, 
and  these  places  are  too  frequently  the  haunts  of  vice 
and  crime.  They  had  been  particularly  bad  in  Glas- 
gow until  brought  under  strict  regulation  by  the  new 
police  acts.  There  was  also  an  almost  irresistible  ten- 
dency to  overcrowd  the  smallest  and  most  wretched 
tenement  apartments  with  nightly  lodgers  of  the  ab- 
jectly poor  class.  Partly  to  relieve  this  pressure,  and 
to  assist  somewhat  in  the  readjustments  of  population 
necessitated  by  the  improvements  scheme,  and  partly 
to  institute  a  competition  that  would  compel  the 
private  keepers  of  such  houses  to  improve  their  estab- 
lishments, the  council  committee  in  charge  of  the  im- 
provement works  opened  two  model  lodging-houses  in 
1870.  So  decidedly  successful  in  every  way  were  these 
institutions  that  another  one,  in  temporary  quarters, 


106 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Seven  such 
establish- 
ments. 


Arrange- 
ments and 
charges. 


A  house  for 
women. 


Effect  on  pri- 
vate enter- 
prise. 


was  opened  in  1874,  to  be  replaced  by  a  large  and 
permanent  one  in  1876.  Three  more  large  houses  on 
the  same  plan  were  opened  in  1878,  and  a  seventh  and 
last  in  1879.  They  have  continued  to  be  an  unquali- 
fied success.  Their  incidental  advantages  as  a  police 
measure,  in  promoting  the  good  order  of  the  city,  can 
hardly  be  overestimated.  The  common  lodging-house 
inspector  had  101  houses  on  his  list  in  1888,  although 
the  city's  seven  establishments  provided  about  one 
third  of  the  total  accommodation,  having  nearly  2000 
beds  out  of  a  total  6273  reported  by  the  inspector. 
It  is  a  pleasure  to  visit  these  municipal  hostelries,  and 
see  for  one's  self  how  cleanly,  comfortable,  and  decent 
they  are.  Every  lodger  is  given  a  separate  apart- 
ment, or  stall,  in  one  of  the  high  and  well-ventilated 
flats,  and  has  the  use  of  a  large  common  sitting-room, 
of  a  locker  for  provisions,  and  of  the  long  kitchen- 
rauge  for  cooking  his  own  food.  The  charge  per  night 
is  3%d.  or  tyd.  (1  or  9  cents),  according  to  the  lodger's 
choice  of  a  bed  with  one  sheet  or  with  two.  In  any 
case  he  rests  on  a  woven-wire  mattress.  Six  of  these 
houses  are  for  men,  and  one  is  for  women,  the  charge 
in  the  latter  being  only  3d.  The  regulations  require 
of  all  the  common  lodging-houses  of  Glasgow  that 
they  shall  be  exclusively  for  one  sex  or  the  other. 
The  success  of  the  corporation's  houses  has  had  the 
good  effect  of  leading  private  enterprise  to  open  simi- 
larly improved  establishments,  with  the  same  scale  of 
prices  and  conducted  on  the  same  strict  rules  as  re- 
gards good  order  and  cleanliness.  Thus  in  1893, 
although  the  total  capacity  of  the  Glasgow  lodging- 
houses  had  increased  by  25  per  cent,  in  five  years, 
the  number  had  fallen  from  101  to  71,  the  municipal 
policy  having  succeeded  in  wiping  out  many  of  the 
smallest  and  worst.  I  find  that  the  city's  six  houses 
for  men,  during  the  year  ending  May  31,  1888,  enter- 


A  STUDY  OP  GLASGOW 


107 


tained  647,681  nightly  lodgers,  and  that  the  house  for 
women,  which  is  smaller  than  the  others,  entertained 
33,986.  The  returns  for  the  preceding  year  are  about 
the  same.  Since  then,  the  number  of  guests  has  been 
increasing.  The  cost  of  the  houses,  which  are  sub- 
stantially built,  was  about  $450,000.  After  paying  all 
running  expenses  and  a  due  amount  for  deterioration 
of  property,  they  yield  a  net  return  of  from  four  to 
five  per  cent,  on  the  investment.  It  costs  about  $6000 
a  year  to  "  run n  one  of  the  houses,  and  the  receipts 
are  from  $8000  to  $9000.  They  are,  therefore,  a 
source  of  actual  profit  to  the  city,  although  of , course 
designed  primarily  to  promote  good  order  and  the 
welfare  of  the  unfortunate  classes.  So  far  as  I  am 
aware,  no  other  city  has  established  lodging-houses 
of  this  kind  upon  so  large  a  scale,  and  Glasgow's  ex- 
perience has  peculiar  interest.  Several  of  the  houses 
were  enlarged  in  1894,  and  it  has  now  become  a  part 
of  the  regular  order  to  provide  every  winter  a  series 
of  social  entertainments  in  each  of  these  seven  model 
lodging-houses,  with  the  result,  as  Lord  Provost  Bell 
assures  us,  of  "  not  only  brightening  the  lot  of  the  in- 
mates of  the  houses,  but  helping  materially  to  remove 
temptation  from  their  path." 

As  a  further  development  of  this  general  policy, 
the  improvement  trustees — i.  e.,  the  city  council — have 
in  1894  entered  upon  the  construction  of  a  "  Family 
Home,"  which  is  designed  to  supplement  the  lodging- 
houses,  and  to  meet  a  peculiar  need  that  they  cannot 
supply.  It  is  to  contain  176  separate  dormitories, 
each  of  which  will  be  capable  of  accommodating  a 
small  family  and  will  be  designed  particularly  for  the 
use  of  a  widow  or  a  widower  with  small  children,  who 
may  be  under  the  necessity  of  going  out  to  work,  thus 
leaving  the  children  behind  during  the  day.  The  es- 
tablishment will  contain  dining-rooms  and  kitchen, 


CHAP.  IV. 


Self-sup- 
porting and 
revenue- 
yielding. 


Centers  for 
kindly  social 


The  new  mu- 
nicipal 
"  Family 
Home." 


108 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


A  remark- 
able inno- 
vation. 


The  public 
baths. 


CHAP.  iv.  day  sitting-rooms  and  play-rooms  and  a  crdcke,  and  a 
playground  will  adjoin.  Practical  experience  in  con- 
ducting the  lodging-houses  has  shown  the  need  of 
this  family  home  as  a  temporary  refuge.  It  can  be 
made  self-supporting  on  the  principle  of  the  lodging- 
houses,  and  it  will  be  the  first  public  institution  of  the 
kind  in  the  United  Kingdom,  if  not  in  the  world. 

As  a  part  of  that  large  scheme  of  sanitary  and  so- 
cial amelioration  that  I  have  thus  far  been  describing, 
are  to  be  regarded  the  great  public  baths  and  wash- 
houses  of  Glasgow.  Power  to  establish  such  places 
was  obtained  in  the  police  acts  of  1862-66 ;  but  it  was 
not  until  1878  that  the  first  one  was  opened.  Glasgow 
was  not  at  that  time  at  all  well  provided  with  baths ; 
and  if  private  capital  had  been  disposed  to  embark 
extensively  in  the  business,  the  common  council  would 
hardly  have  ventured  to  add  this  to  its  undertak- 
ings. But  there  was  manifest  need,  and  the  author- 
ities courageously  proceeded  to  supply  the  facilities 

ii*s«tutkms.  pro  bonopublico.  They  have  now  five  large  establish- 
ments in  different  parts  of  the  city,  the  first  of  which 
was  opened  in  1878  and  the  last  in  1884.  Each  in- 
cludes under  the  same  roof  very  capacious  swimming- 
baths  for  men  and  for  women  and  numerous  small 
bath-rooms,  every  modern  facility  being  provided ; 
and  also,  as  a  distinct  feature,  an  elaborate  and  ex- 
tensive wash-house  for  the  use  of  poor  families  that 
lack  home  conveniences  for  laundry-work.  The  sub- 
stantial character  of  these  institutions  will  appear 
when  I  state  the  fact  that,  although  honestly  and 
economically  built,  they  have  cost  more  than  $600,000. 
The  swimming-baths  are  kept  open  through  the  en- 
tire year,  at  a  uniform  temperature,  and  the  pure  and 
soft  Loch  Katrine  water  makes  them  particularly  in- 
viting. Their  establishment  was  an  inestimable  boon 
to  the  working-classes,  who  needed  them  as  a  corn- 


Five  large 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  109 

mon  decency  of  life,  aiid  who  enjoy  them  as  a  luxury.    CHAP.  iv. 
They  are  in  charge  of  competent  swimming-masters, 
and  there  are  swimming-clubs  and  frequent  contests    Popularity 
in  connection  with  each  of  them.     Glasgow  affords  ming-tath™" 
the  masses  so  little  healthful  recreation  comparatively 
that  this  feature  of  the  baths  is  the  more  appreciated. 
The  number  of  bathers  exceeds  450,000  a  year,  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  increase;  al- 
though the  present  average  of  1500  per  day  the  entire 
year  through  would  seem  to  justify  the  city's  outlay. 
The  charges  are  of  course  small  —  twopence  for  use 
of  swimming-bath,  and  a  little  more  for  the  private 
baths,  with  special  rates  for  school  children. 

Hardly  less  useful  in  the  cause  of  public  cleanliness 
and  decency  are  the  wash-houses.  For  the  trifling  sum  wash-houses. 
of  twopence  an  hour  a  woman  is  allowed  the  use  of  a 
stall  containing  an  improved  steam-boiling  arrange- 
ment and  fixed  tubs  with  hot  and  cold  water  faucets. 
The  washing  being  quickly  done,  the  clothes  are  de- 
posited for  two  or  three  minutes  in  one  of  a  row  of 
centrifugal  machine  driers,  after  which  they  are  hung 
on  one  of  a  series  of  sliding  frames  which  retreat  into 
a  hot-air  apartment.  If  she  wishes,  the  housewife 
may  then  use  a  large  roller-mangle,  operated,  like  all 
the  rest  of  the  machinery,  by  steam-power ;  and  she 
may  at  the  end  of  the  hour  go  home  with  her  basket  A  boon  to 
of  clothes  washed,  dried,  and  ironed.  To  appreciate  housee™tves. 
the  convenience  of  all  this,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  woman  probably  lives  with  her  family  in  one 
small  room  of  an  upper  tenement  flat.  The  number 
of  washings  done  in  these  houses  increased  from  76,- 
718  in  the  year  1885-86  to  96,832  in  the  year  1887-88, 
and  to  155,221  in  the  year  1890-91 ;  and  unquestion- 
ably this  patronage  is  destined  to  have  a  very  large 
future  growth. 

It  would  be  a  decided  oversight  not  to  mention  the 


110 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAJ.  IV. 


The  city  in 

the  laundry 

business. 


fact,  in  passing,  for  the  sake  of  those  interested  in 
noting  the  advancing  socialism  of  the  day,  that  in  each 
of  these  establishments  the  city  also  separately  con- 
ducts a  general  laundry  business,  drawing  its  patron- 
age from  all  classes  of  society.  I  observe  by  refer- 
ence to  one  of  the  printed  municipal  wash-lists  that 
its  charges  for  shirts,  skirts,  etc.,  are  at  about  the  cur- 
rent Glasgow  rates.  This  line  of  enterprise  has  doubt- 
less been  assumed  because  the  baths  and  wash-houses, 
while  paying  running  expenses,  do  not  as  yet,  at  their 
low  rates  of  charge,  pay  interest  upon  the  investment. 
The  rather  undignified  entrance  of  the  municipal  cor- 
poration into  competition  with  the  private  laundries 
of  the  city  can  hardly  find  permanent  favor ;  but  this 
is  merely  incidental,  and  it  detracts  nothing  from  the 
praiseworthiness  of  the  public  services  rendered  by 
the  baths  and  wash-houses. 


The  municipal  functions  of  "  Watching  and  Light- 
ing" are  associated  together  in  Glasgow  under  the  su- 
"  watching    pervision  of  the  same  council  committee ;  and  the  Fire 

and  Light-      *  " 

Department  is  also  intimately  related  to  that  of  "watch- 
ing," or  ordinary  police.  These  three  services  pertain 
to  the  general  police  government  of  the  city,  and  their 
cost  is  defrayed  from  the  fund  provided  by  the  gen- 
eral police  rate,  as  is  that  of  the  Sanitary  and  Cleans- 
ing departments,  the  public  baths,  and  the  streets, 
sewers,  and  bridges. 

The  Glasgow  police  force  is  a  fine  and  well-disci- 
plined body  of  nearly  1400  men.  Size  and  strength 
have  been  counted  prime  qualifications  in  their  selec- 
tion, and  their  average  height  is  just  under  six  feet. 
Their  average  age  is  34,  and  their  average  length  of 
service  is  ten  years.  They  are  organized  under  a  chief 
constable,  10  superintendents,  and  28  lieutenants, 
with  a  number  of  inspectors  and  sergeants  in  imme- 


aud  Light- 
ing," and 
ft re  service. 


The  police 
force. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


111 


diate  command  of  the  patrolmen,  or  ordinary  con- 
stables. A  majority  of  the  men  are  Highlanders. 
They  are  of  excellent  personal  character  as  a  rule,  and 
very  faithful  in  the  performance  of  routine  duties. 
The  force  is  universally  praised  by  the  citizens,  and 
those  complaints  and  expressions  of  criticism  and  dis- 
trust that  one  hears  in  any  American  city  are  unknown 
in  Glasgow.  The  chief  seems  to  use  his  own  discre- 
tion very  largely  in  the  selection  of  new  men,  and 
there  is  no  ordeal  of  competitive  examination  to  be 
passed.  The  selection  of  the  chief  is  made  by  the 
council  on  recommendation  of  the  committee,  and 
vacancies  in  the  other  offices  are  usually  filled  by  pro- 
motion. From  top  to  bottom,  the  police  service  com- 
mands admiration  and  confidence. 

The  police  courts  belong  to  this  department.  Justice 
is  dispensed  by  the  Lord  Provost,  and  by  those  mem- 
bers of  the  council,  ten  in  number,  who  have  been 
set  aside  by  their  fellows  as  Bailies  or  Magistrates. 
They  arrange  a  scheme  of  rotation,  and  are  assisted 
by  assessors,  these  being  practising  lawyers  who  are 
paid  for  advising  the  citizen-magistrates  on  points 
of  law.  The  magistrates  themselves  are,  of  course, 
not  paid;  but  in  order  somewhat  to  lighten  their 
labors,  a  stipendiary  magistrate,  or  salaried  police 
judge,  is  employed  at  $5000  a  year,  who  sits  constantly 
in  the  central  district  and  disposes  of  a  large  share  of 
the  business.  The  general  police  government  of  the 
city  also  employs  a  law  officer  or  attorney  known  as 
the  "procurator  fiscal,"  who  conducts  prosecutions, 
when  necessary,  in  the  enforcement  of  the  sanitary 
and  other  statutes  and  regulations  administered  by 
the  council  in  its  capacity  as  a  police  board. 

Half  the  expense  of  police-force  salaries  and  cloth- 
ing is  met  by  a  government  grant,  as  for  all  other 
municipal  corporations  in  the  kingdom,  the  mainte- 


CHAP.  IV. 


Its  high 
character. 


The  police 
courts. 


Cost  of 
police. 


112 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


Public 
lighting. 


CHAP.  iv.  nance  of  order  being  in  theory  and  origin  a  general 
rather  than  a  local  function.  The  net  charge  of  the 
police  force  upon  the  local  rates  is  only  about  $250,- 
000.  Glasgow  has  adopted  the  plan  of  building  very 
commodious  police-station  establishments,  in  which 
are  sleeping-rooms,  kitchens,  and  mess-rooms  for  the 
unmarried  members  of  the  force.  Retiring  pensions 
of  this  force,  are  allowed,  and  everything  possible  is  done  by  the 
municipality  to  promote  a  high  standard  of  personal 
character  and  a  strong  sense  of  fidelity  among  the 
men  charged  with  keeping  the  city's  peace  and  order. 

The  advantage  of  abundant  illumination  at  night 
as  a  police  measure  seems  to  me  to  be  appreciated  in 
Glasgow  as  in  few  other  cities.  There  is  nothing  very 
noteworthy  about  the  gas-lights  along  all  the  public 
streets,  unless  the  commendable  clearness  with  which 
street  names  are  painted  upon  the  four  sides  of  the 
corner  lamps  as  well  as  upon  the  corner  buildings 
should  merit  a  passing  compliment ;  but  very  notable 
and  unusual  is  the  illumination  by  the  authorities  not 
only  of  all  private  streets  and  courts,  but  also  of  all 
common  stairs.  The  cost  of  gas  and  wages  of  lighters 
for  illuminating  the  common  stairs  alone  are  greater 
than  the  same  items  of  expense  for  lighting  all  the 
public  streets  of  the  city. 

A  part  of  the  extra  outlay  is  recovered  by  special 
assessments;  but  a  considerable  margin  is  a  charge 
upon  the  general  rates.  Thus  it  cost  for  the  year 
1887-88  to  light  private  streets  and  courts  about 
$21,200,  of  which  $12,300  was  collected  by  a  special 
assessment  of  $3.75  per  lamp,  leaving  about  $9000  to 
be  paid  from  the  treasury.  The  expense  of  lighting 
common  stairs  was  $95,500,  of  which  $56,800  was  re- 
covered from  owners  by  an  assessment  of  $2.50  per 
light,  leaving  the  city  nearly  $40,000  to  pay.  The  net 
cost  to  the  city  of  the  Street-lighting  Department 


Lighting 

courts  and 

stairs. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  113 

proper,  excluding  the  two  services  just  mentioned,    CHAP.  iv. 
lout  including  cost  of  superintendence  and  central  offi- 
ces that  pertain  to  the  three  services,  was  less  than 
$100,000. 

The  sums  that  owners  pay  the  city  for  lighting 
courts  and  stairs  are  perhaps  more  than  they  would 
pay  for  insufficient  illumination  if  the  matter  were 
left  in  their  hands.  The  excess  paid  by  the  city  in  illumination 
order  to  secure  proper  lighting  should  be  regarded,  "measure? 
like  the  police  force  and  the  street  lamps,  as  a  legiti- 
mate outlay  for  public  protection,  convenience,  and 
order.  As  the  Chief  of  Police  has  remarked  to  me, 
each  lamp  is  as  good  as  an  additional  constable. 
The  statistics  of  apprehensions  and  convictions  for 
crimes  show  a  remarkable  increase  in  proportion  to 
the  number  of  crimes  reported,  since  the  improve- 
ment trust  and  the  stair-lighting  have  opened  up  the 
many  once  dark  and  almost  inaccessible  rendezvous  of 
thieves  and  criminals,  while  the  total  amount  of  seri- 
ous crime  has  steadily  diminished  in  proportion  to 
the  population. 

The  Fire  Department  of  Glasgow  is  interesting  to 
an  American  chiefly  on  account  of  its  modest  propor- 
tions and  trifling  cost.  The  population  of  Glasgow 
is  greater  than  that  of  Boston;  but  while  the  fire-  smaiicost 
extinguishing  service  of  the  latter  city  costs  annually  partment. 
about  $800,000,  I  find  that  the  net  expense  of  the 
Glasgow  department  for  the  year  1891  was  less  than 
$60,000  —  about  one  thirteenth  that  of  Boston.  Glas- 
gow's great  saving  in  this  item  is  due  partly  to  the 
compactness  of  the  city,  partly  to  its  construction  of 
fire-proof  materials,  and  partly  to  the  great  pressure 
in  the  water-mains.  The  storage  reservoirs  being 

......  Various  safe- 

more  than  300  feet  above  the  city,  there  is  a  pressure      guards 

in  the  pipes  that  varies  from  50  to  100  pounds  per 
square  inch,  being  greatest  of  course  at  night,  when 


114  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  fires  are  most  likely  to  occur;  and  in  the  large  major- 
ity of  cases  the  firemen  have  only  to  connect  their 
hose  with  the  hydrants  and  turn  on  the  water.  Thus 
I  find  that  while  the  department  possessed  six  steam 
and  nine  manual  fire-engines,  and  while  engines  were 
taken  out  on  occasion  of  237  of  the  344  fires  which 
were  extinguished  by  the  firemen  in  1887,  yet  the 
engines  were  actually  worked  at  only  fourteen  fires. 
Flames  spread  slowly  in  the  stone  buildings,  with  their 
universal  stone  staircases  and  flagged  hallways.  Buck- 
ets and  hand-pumps,  in  two  thirds  of  the  cases,  are 
sufficient  apparatus ;  and  a  single  line  of  hose  attached 
to  the  nearest  hydrant  answers  for  nearly  all  the  rest. 
Glasgow  was  in  earlier  times  built  largely  of  wood, 
and  its  historians  record  some  great  conflagrations. 
But  the  present  city  is  remarkably  solid  and  non- 
combustible.  The  total  permanent  fire-force  num- 
bered 86  men  in  1887 ;  51  policemen  being  also  drilled 
as  an  auxiliary  fire-force.  The  number  in  1894  is  per- 
haps 100  men  as  against  800  for  Boston.  The  Glas- 

provision  gow  firemen  all  have  houses  provided  rent  free,  in 
HMD.  flats  above  the  engine  and  hose  rooms,  and  each  man 
lives  apart  with  his  family,  being  summoned  to  duty 
by  an  electric  call-bell  from  the  watch-room  below. 
This  plan  of  course  delays  the  response  to  an  alarm. 
The  service,  as  a  whole,  is  by  no  means  primitive, 
however,  and,  indeed,  the  accomplished  and  learned 
City  Chamberlain,  Mr.  James  Nicol,  declares  that 
"of  all  Glasgow's  municipal  organizations,  the  Fire 
Brigade  is  the  most  interesting  and  popular." 

Until  1860  Glasgow  was  supplied  by  a  private  cor- 
poration with  water  pumped  from  the  river  Clyde. 
The  Clyde  is  but  a  small  stream ;  and  as  the  develop- 
ment of  industries  and  a  great  population  in  the  Clyde 
valley  made  the  quality  of  the  water  wholly  unsuit- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


115 


Tapping 

Loch 
Katrine. 


able  for  domestic  uses,  the  volume  of  supply  became  CHAP.  iv. 
inadequate  also.  A  rehearsal  of  the  various  schemes 
proposed  from  1834  to  1854  would  be  out  of  place 
here,  and  it  is  enough  to  say  that  courageous  and  far- 
sighted  views  at  length  prevailed,  and  in  1855  the 
corporation  of  Glasgow  obtained  parliamentary  au- 
thority to  purchase  the  works  and  interests  of  the 
existing  water-company,  and  those  of  a  smaller  com- 
pany which  supplied  the  district  south  of  the  Clyde, 
and  to  bring  in  a  supply  of  50,000,000  gallons  a  day 
from  Loch  Katrine,  34  miles  distant  in  the  Highlands. 
This  was  a  great  project  forty  years  ago,  when 
large  engineering  enterprises  were  less  common  than 
to-day;  and  its  success  has  been  of  inestimable  advan- 
tage to  Glasgow.  The  old  supply  was  abandoned  and 
the  new  works  were  opened  in  1860.  The  supply  is 
practically  inexhaustible,  the  average  yearly  rainfall 
of  the  drainage  area  of  Loch  Katrine  being  about  100 
inches,  and  two  other  lakes  in  the  same  neighborhood 
being  utilized  as  compensation  reservoirs.  Although 
the  demand  has  not  yet  seriously  overtaxed  the  capa-  The  system 
city  of  the  existing  aqueduct,  the  entire  system  has  etafbild! 
been  gradually  duplicated;  and  in  the  course  of  a 
year  or  two  the  works  will  have  a  capacity  of  100,- 
000,000  gallons  per  day,  and  suffice  for  the  needs  of  a 
population  of  from  1,500,000  to  2,000,000.  At  pres- 
ent, a  population  of  more  than  800,000  is  supplied, 
and  the  average  daily  quantity  is  40,000,000  gallons. 
A  few  years  ago  a  smaller  population  used  nearly 
2,000,000  more  gallons;  but  much  attention  has  re- 
cently been  given  to  the  stoppage  of  waste  by  the  use 
of  improved  fittings  and  by  vigilant  inspection.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  the  fact  that  Glasgow  uses  more 
than  twice  as  much  water  per  capita  as  Manches-  DM  of  inter. 
ter  or  Liverpool,  and  about  three  times  as  much  as 
Birmingham.  The  present  daily  supply  is  about  50 


116 


MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


[{eduction 
of  water- 
rates. 


Revenues 
and  expen- 
ditures. 


gallons  to  each  person,  of  which  about  one  fourth 
may  be  called  the  trade  and  manufacturing  supply, 
the  rest  being  the  domestic  and  municipal  supply. 

It  is  further  worth  while  to  note  that  Glasgow  is 
able  to  provide  its  much  more  bountiful  supply  at 
less  expense  to  the  users  than  is  incurred  in  the  large 
English  towns.  It  is  the  almost  universal  plan  in  the 
towns  of  the  United  Kingdom  to  levy  a  domestic 
water-charge  upon  the  rental  value  of  the  premises 
supplied.  The  old  charge  made  by  the  Glasgow  water- 
company  was  14d.  in  the  £.  The  corporation  reduced 
it  in  1865  to  12d,  in  1871  to  8d.,  and  in  1886  to  Id.  (the 
large  outlying  population,  however,  being  charged 
lid.).  It  has  since  been  reduced  to  6d.  In  addition 
to  this,  a  public  water-rate  of  Id.  in  the  £  of  rental 
valuation  is  levied,  to  defray  the  expense  of  water  used 
for  various  municipal  purposes.  The  water  used  in 
manufacturing,  etc.,  is  supplied  specially  at  a  meter 
charge  of  4d.  per  thousand  gallons.  For  purposes  of 
general  comparison  with  other  cities  it  may  be  well 
to  state  that  Glasgow  furnishes  40,000,000  gallons  of 
water  per  day  at  an  average  remuneration  for  all 
branches  of  the  service  of  about  one  American  cent 
for  every  200  gallons. 

The  income  of  the  works  in  a  recent  year  was  more 
than  $800,000,  of  which,  in  round  sums,  $160,000  was 
derived  from  the  domestic  rate  inside  the  municipal 
limits,  $160,000  from  the  larger  domestic  rate  charged 
outside  the  boundaries,  $420,000  from  the  trade  sup- 
ply, and  $60,000  from  the  public  rate  levied  to  pay  for 
municipal  consumption.  The  large  revenue  from  the 
trade  supply  is  noteworthy,  as  far  exceeding  that  of 
any  other  British  town.  The  total  expenditure  of  the 
department  was  $600,000,  and  a  net  revenue  of  $200,- 
000  was  therefore  earned,  all  of  which  was  applied  to 
the  sinking-fund. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


117 


The  total  capital  expenditure  up  to  date  is  approx- 
imately $14,000,000,  about  one  fourth  of  which  repre- 
sents the  debts  of  the  old  water-companies  assumed 
by  the  corporation,  and  three  fourths  represents  the 
cost  of  the  new  system  as  finally  completed.  As 
against  this  great  outlay,  a  sinking-fund  begun  in 
1871  has  now  grown  to  $3*000,000.  Thus,  with  steadily 
declining  water-taxes,  it  has  been  found  possible  to 
meet  current  expenses,  including  interest,  and  to  pay 
off  about  two  per  cent,  of  the  capital  outlay  every 
year.  The  duplication  of  the  works — i.  e.,  the  construc- 
tion of  a  second  aqueduct  and  an  additional  great 
storage  reservoir  near  the  city,  with  embankments  at 
Loch  Katrine  which  will  nearly  double  its  storage  ca- 
pacity—will have  cost  from  $5,000,000  to  $6,000,000; 
but  this  outlay  can  be  met  without  increasing  charges 
or  taxes  by  a  single  penny.  The  corporation  will  have 
nearly  a  month's  supply  in  its  reservoirs,  which  are 
300  feet  above  the  general  level  of  the  town  and 
seven  miles  distant. 

In  remarks  upon  the  fire  service  I  have  mentioned 
the  great  saving  of  expense  due  to  the  immense  grav- 
ity pressure  in  the  water-pipes.  This  saving  is  esti- 
mated as  equal  to  more  than  a  fair  interest  charge 
upon  the  entire  cost  of  the  Loch  Katrine  works,  or 
perhaps  $250,000  a  year.  Competent  authorities  also 
estimate  the  yearly  saving  to  the  people  of  Glasgow 
in  the  two  items  of  tea  and  soap  as  equal  to  an 
amount  at  least  quite  as  large.  The  Loch  Katrine 
water  is  almost  wholly  free  from  solutions  of  mineral 
ingredients,  and  doubtless  its  softness  results  indi- 
rectly in  very  large  economic  gains.  On  the  other 
hand,  its  lack  of  bone-making  material  is  said  to  have 
resulted  in  much  deformity  among  the  children  of  the 
poor  —  a  charge  that  I  have  not  investigated,  but 
regard  with  skepticism.  One  of  the  latest  of  the 

I.— 8* 


CHAP.  IV. 


Cost  of 
works  and 
debt-pay- 
ment. 


Economic 
advantages 
of  Loch  Ka- 
trine water. 


118  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.     innovations  of  the  Water  Department  has  been  the 

construction   of  a  great  establishment,  at  a  cost  of 

Municipal    several    hundred    thousand    dollars,  known   as    the 

rower  works.  "  Hydraulic  Power  "Works,"  for  the  purpose  of 
supplying  water  under  high  pressure  as  a  motive 
power  for  elevators,  hoists,  light  machinery,  etc. 
These  works,  of  course,  distribute  power  through  a 
distinct  set  of  pipes.  With  electric  power  for  distri- 
bution also,  from  its  new  electrical  works,  Glasgow 
will  in  the  early  future  derive  a  considerable  revenue 
from  this  function. 

The  entire  council  is  constituted  a  Board  of  Water 

organization  Commissioners  by  Parliament,  and  a  large  committee, 

Department,  divided  into  subcommittees  on  works  and  finance, 
has  active  supervision.  The  executive  organization 
separates  the  financial  from  the  engineering  adminis- 
tration, an  engineer  and  his  staff  having  full  charge 
of  the  works,  while  a  treasurer  and  his  staff  have  the 
entire  management  of  the  money  affairs  of  the  de- 
partment. This  separation  of  works  and  finance, 
quite  universal  in  British  municipal  government,  acts 
as  an  excellent  check. 

Having  made  the  waterworks  a  grand  success,  hav- 

Municipal      . 

assumption  ing  next  begun  a  corporation  park  system,  and  then  a 
o  ga^sup  consolidate^  market  system  (to  both  of  which  I  shall 
subsequently  refer),  and  having  entered  vigorously 
and  hopefully  upon  the  sanitary  and  city  improvement 
schemes  already  described,  Glasgow  was  prepared  in 
1869  to  undertake  another  large  municipal  enterprise. 
In  that  year,  after  much  difficulty  in  adjusting  the 
details  of  the  arrangement,  the  gas-supply  of  the  city 
was  transferred  from  private  hands  to  the  corporation, 
to  be  managed  by  the  council  as  an  ordinary  depart- 
ment. The  original  cost  exceeded  $2,600,000.  Twen- 
ty-five years  of  management  by  the  authorities  has 


A  STUDY  OP  GLASGOW 


119 


given  unmitigated  satisfaction  to  all  the  citizens  of 
Glasgow.  The  quantity  of  gas  sold  had  increased 
from  1,026,000,000  feet  in  1869-70,  the  corporation's 
first  year,  to  3,126,000,000  in  1890-91,  an  increase  of 
170  per  cent.,  while  the  population  supplied  had  grown 
only  perhaps  25  or  30  per  cent.  In  1869-70  the  amount 
manufactured  was  20  per  cent,  greater  than  the  amount 
sold  or  accounted  for.  Careful  management  has  re- 
duced this  amount  of  leakage  to  about  10  per  cent. 
More  than  140,000  meters  are  in  use  5  and  as  it  is  not 
the  policy  of  the  corporation  to  charge  its  customers 
for  more  than  they  actually  receive,  it  is  inevitable . 
that  there  should  be  a  considerable  percentage  of  loss 
in  delivery.  From  $1.14  per  thousand  feet,  which  was 
charged  consumers  in  1869-70,  the  corporation  has 
been  able  to  make  reductions  year  by  year  until  for 
several  recent  years  the  price  has  been  fixed  at  60 
cents.  No  one  will  claim  that  a  private  company 
would  have  made  these  reductions  while  continuing 
to  supply  a  satisfactory  quality  of  gas,  especially  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  the  price  of  gas-making  coal  has 
greatly  increased. 

Yet  the  department  has  been  able  to  construct  new 
works  (it  now  owns  four  immense  establishments), 
pay  its  interest  charges  and  running  expenses,  write 
off  large  sums  every  year  for  depreciation  of  works, 
pipes,  and  meters,  and  accumulate  a  sinking-fund 
easily  capable  of  paying  off  capital  indebtedness  as  it 
matures.  The  total  indebtedness  was  at  the  highest 
point  in  1875,  when  it  reached  $5,300,000.  The  net 
debt  is  now  reduced  to  about  $2,400,000,  which  is  very 
much  more  than  covered,  of  course,  by  the  value  of 
the  plant.  Whatever  competition  gas  as  an  illumi- 
nant  may  have  to  face  in  the  future,  the  Glasgow  cor- 
poration works  have  reached  a  point  of  perfect  finan- 
cial security. 


CHAP.  IV. 


Growth  of 
the  business. 


Steady  re- 
duction of 
prices. 


Financial 
success  of 
the  under- 
taking. 


120  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GKEAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.        In  the  rather  gloomy  winter  climate  of  Glasgow, 

which  necessitates  a  large  use  of  artificial  light,  cheap 

social  policy  cras  in  ail  the  tenements  however  humble,  and  in 

mpubhcgas-    e  .  / 

supply,  every  passageway,  is  an  inestimable  blessing;  and 
the  more  than  doubling  of  the  per  capita  use,  under 
the  city's  management  of  the  works,  means  a  vast  in- 
crease in  comfort  and  happiness  that  defies  statistical 
expression.  Great  wisdom  and  humanity  have  been 
shown,  therefore,  in  the  policy  of  smaller  earnings 
and  a  less  rapid  debt-payment  for  the  sake  of  a  more 
rapid  reduction  of  the  charge  to  consumers,  and  a  more 
rapid  growth  of  the  total  consumption.  These  con- 
siderations of  the  general  good  which  dominate  the 
public  control  of  such  services  as  those  of  light  and 
water  can  have  only  small  weight  in  the  counsels  of 
a  private  money-making  corporation ;  and  herein  lies 
perhaps  the  most  fundamental  reason  for  the  munici- 
pal assumption  of  such  functions.  No  other  city  in 
the  world,  at  least  outside  of  Scotland,  can  at  all  com- 
pare with  Glasgow  in  the  universality  of  the  use  of 
gas  in  the  homes  of  the  working-classes. 

It  remains  to  speak  of  the  recent  experiment  of  the 
Glasgow  Gas  Department  in  supplying  gas  cooking- 
stoves,  either  selling  them  at  about  cost  price,  or  rent- 
ing them  at  a  moderate  charge  by  the  year,  half-year, 
or  quarter.  To  understand  the  local  application  of 
this  experiment,  it  is  necessary  to  recur  to  the  fact 
that  fully  70  per  cent,  of  the  people  of  Glasgow  live 
in  houses  of  one  or  two  rooms,  using  the  same  fire  for 
cooking  and  heating,  but  spending  as  little  as  possible 
Encouraging  for  mere  heat  during  eight  months  of  the  year.  All 
usea°fuas  as  these  houses  are  fitted  with  gas  for  illumination.  An 
immense  saving  would  be  effected  by  the  use  of  gas 
for  cooking,  besides  the  consideration  of  comfort  in 
the  summer  months  when  fires  for  heating  are  not  an 
object ;  and  these  same  considerations  apply  to  a  ma- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  121 

jority  of  the  families  living  in  more  than  two  rooms.  CHAP.  iv. 
The  city  recovers  in  rents  a  fair  interest  and  depre- 
ciation charge  on  its  investment  in  stoves,  and  is  at 
the  same  time  extending  the  market  for  its  gas.  Since 
1885  this  business  has  gone  on  briskly,  the  city  having 
a  large  sum  invested  in  stoves.  During  the  year  1887- 
1888  there  were  sold  1193  heating  and  cooking  appli- 
ances, and  1465  were  rented.  In  1892  the  department 
had  more  than  8000  gas-stoves  of  its  own  on  hire  in 
the  tenement-houses,  and  had  in  the  preceding  seven 
years  sold  many  thousands.  This  is  not  to  be  deemed 
a  permanent  feature  of  the  Gas  Department,  but  mere-  propaganda, 
ly  a  passing  bit  of  semi-commercial,  semi-philanthro- 
pic enterprise,  to  stimulate  the  use  of  gas  as  fuel  in 
the  abodes  of  the  poor. 

The  Glasgow  authorities  evidently  look  forward  to 
a  time  when  the  use  of  electricity  as  an  illuminant  will 
to  some  extent  supersede  the  demand  for  gas.    Ac- 
cordingly they  propose  to  develop  the  local  practice  of 
using  gas  as  a  fuel.     So  inevitable  is  the  very  general  I 
use  of  gas  stoves  and  furnaces  in  the  early  future  that7 
no  possible  extension  of  the  use  of  electricity  for  light- 
ing purposes  can  render  gas  making  and  distributing 
plants  superfluous.    Meanwhile,  the  municipal  author- 
ities of  Glasgow  have  determined  to  monopolize  the 

,  ,.  ,  .     ,.  Establish- 

business  of  distributing  electric  light  and  power  from  ment  of  an 
central  establishments.  They  obtained  powers  from  e  e°yilnt!g 
Parliament  in  1890  to  undertake  electric  lighting.  In 
1892  they  bought  out  an  existing  private  company, 
and  in  1893  they  opened  a  large  municipal  plant,  in 
the  heart  of  the  city,  for  supplying  arc  and  incandes- 
cent lights  to  private  consumers  as  well  as  to  streets 
and  public  buildings.  The  experiment  is  deemed  sat- 
isfactory thus  far,  and  this  enterprise,  which  is  under 
the  management  of  the  Gas  Department,  promises  to 
have  a  great  development  in  the  early  future. 


122  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  Some  remarks  upon  the  sewerage  may  perhaps  be 
well  introduced  at  this  point.  Glasgow  has  not  until 

sewers  and    lately  been  so  far  advanced  in  its  drainage  system  as 

question.6  in  many  other  respects.  Its  streets  had  been  well  pro- 
vided with  ordinary  sewers,  but  there  were  no  main 
conduits  or  intercepting  sewers.  The  street-drains  dis- 
charged their  offensive  material  at  frequent  intervals 
into  the  Clyde  on  both  sides.  The  dredging  operations, 
which  had  given  deep  water  and  brought  a  consider- 
able tidal  movement  up  as  far  as  Glasgow,  had  made 
it  possible  to  continue  a  system  which  otherwise  would 
have  become  absolutely  intolerable  long  ago.  There 
was  no  clear  proof,  it  is  true,  that  the  discharge  of 
millions  of  gallons  of  sewage  daily  into  the  river  was 
seriously  detrimental  to  public  health,  although  the 
stream  was  made  horribly  filthy,  and  its  banks  were 
most  malodorous.  For  forty  years  the  authorities 
had  been  considering  the  question  of  the  ultimate  dis- 
posal of  sewage ;  and  at  length,  in  1892,  a  practical 
step  was  taken.  Glasgow  is  not  so  situated  as  to  make 
the  sewage-farm  plan  a  feasible  one  for  the  disposi- 
tion of  liquid  filth,  and  it  became  evident,  as  experi- 
ments in  other  British  and  continental  cities  were 
studied,  that  some  system  of  separation  of  the  solid 
ingredients  by  the  aid  of  chemicals,  and  with  filtra- 
tion works,  would  have  to  be  adopted.  In  1894  Glas- 
gow completed,  at  a  cost  of  half  a  million  dollars,  one 
of  the  most  perfectly  arranged  establishments  of  this 
character  that  modern  ingenuity  has  yet  devised. 

The  sewer  system  of  the  eastern  part  of  the  town  has 
been  reconstructed,  and  the  mains  which  carry  off  the 

xhenewpre-  refuse  from  portions  of  the  city  occupied  by  nearly 
300,000  people  have  been  made  to  converge  at  one 
point  of  outfall,  on  the  river  bank,  up-stream  from  the 
harbor,  where  the  municipality  has  acquired  about 
thirty  acres  of  ground.  The  works  erected  thereon 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  123 

are  too  elaborate  for  description  in  detail.  Some-  CHAP.  iv. 
thing,  however,  should  be  said,  because  this  new  sys- 
tem at  Glasgow  is  representative  of  what  numerous 
European  cities  are  now  adopting,  in  pursuance  of 
one  of  the  most  imperative  functions  that  modern 
cities  recognize,  that  of  sewer-drainage  and  a  dispo- 
sition of  the  sewage.  The  inflowing  sewage  is  re- 
ceived in  great  vats,  where  skilful  mechanisms  skim 
off  bits  of  wood  and  floating  substances,  and  also  ap- 
propriate the  pebbles  and  heavy  ingredients  that  sink 
readily.  The  inky  fluid  then  passes  on  through  a 
channel  in  which  it  is  treated  with  milk  of  lime  and  treatment. 
a  solution  of  sulphate  of  alumina,  to  assist  in  the  sep- 
aration and  precipitation  of  the  solid  ingredients.  It 
rests  for  perhaps  half  an  hour  in  a  series  of  precipita- 
tion-tanks, then  flows  in  shallow  sheets  across  the 
floors  of  a  series  of  aeration-tanks.  The  sludge  that 
settles  in  the  precipitation-tanks  is  dropped  through 
valves  into  a  passageway  underneath,  and  is  carried 
to  several  "  sludge  rams  "  worked  by  compressed  air,  Of°™sh?d|e°." 
which  in  turn  force  it  into  a  number  of  powerful 
"  sludge  presses,"  which  squeeze  all  the  remaining 
water  out  of  it,  and  deliver  solid  cakes  of  sludge  by 
shutes  directly  into  railway  freight- wagons,  standing 
on  the  tracks  below.  These  manurial  sludge-cakes  f"rt?iL£r.a 
are  carried  by  rail  out  to  the  city's  extensive  new 
farm,  where  fodder  is  to  be  raised  for  the  muni- 
cipal horseflesh  that  belongs  to  the  Cleansing  De- 
partment and  to  the  Street  Railway  Department. 
Meanwhile,  the  comparatively  clean  water  from  the 
precipitation  and  aeration  tanks  is  carried  to  a  series 
of  filter  basins.  Part  of  these  basins  is  filled  with  taatu. ' 
gas  coke,  which,  when  it  has  become  too  foul  for  fur- 
ther use  in  that  way,  is  removed  and  consumed  as  fuel 
for  the  boilers  which  make  steam  to  supply  the  great 
engines  of  the  establishment.  The  other  niters  are 


124  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  of  stones  and  sand,  on  the  general  pattern  that  has 
become  approved  for  purposes  of  water-purification. 
From  these  filters  the  water  passes,  clean  and  innocu- 
ous, into  the  Clyde.  Thus  the  pure  water  from  Loch 
Katrine,  having  served  its  purposes  and  become  foul 
in  use  and  laden  with  refuse,  and  having  passed 
into  the  sewers,  is  made  to  undergo  a  process  that 
permits  its  effluence  into  the  Clyde  almost  as  free 
from  foreign  ingredients,  and  quite  as  odorless,  as 
when  it  left  its  cloud-compassed  source  in  the  High- 
lands. This  is  the  modern  ideal.  Sewage-farms  will 
accomplish  that  ideal  best  and  least  expensively  where 
the  situation  favors  that  method.  Otherwise  such  a 
plan  as  this  which  Glasgow  has  adopted  is  the  satisfac- 
tory one.  At  present  it  is  not  a  large  proportion  of 
the  city's  total  sewage  that  Glasgow  purifies  in  that 
manner.  But  the  existing  works  can  readily  and  at 
small  expense  be  enlarged  to  a  capacity  equal  to 
nearly  half  the  total  discharge ;  and  it  will  doubtless 
be  the  council's  decision  at  an  early  day  to  provide 
for  the  rest  by  building  another  precipitation-plant 
below  the  city.  No  very  profitable  use  can  be  made 
of  the  sludge-cakes,  but  it  is  calculated  that  they  will 
at  least  pay  for  the  cost  of  their  removal  to  farming 

the  harbor,  land.  The  purification  of  the  harbor  is  an  object 
worth  the  expense  that  sewage-purification  entails  on 
the  ratepayers.  Indeed,  the  cost  of  constantly  dredg- 
ing a  fouled  harbor  is  itself  equal  to  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  expense  of  a  perfect  separation  system. 

pubiicworks  A  city  which  assumes  so  many  things  on  its  own 
wactsystem.  account  might  have  been  expected  to  undertake  the 
direct  construction  of  its  public  works.  But  this 
would  have  been  foreign  to  English  and  Scotch  ideas  of 
business  propriety.  The  contract  system  is  universal, — 
or  has  been  until  lately.  Every  piece  of  new  paving  or 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  ,.    .  125 

sewer- work  is  let  out  on  contract  to  the  lowest  re-  CHAP.  iv. 
sponsible  bidder  ;  and  while  the  Glasgow  authorities 
see  no  objection  to  owning  and  operating  common 
lodging-houses,  tenement-houses,  public  wash-houses, 
markets,  slaughter-houses,  and  assembly-halls,  they 
would  unanimously  condemn  the  suggestion  that  the 
city  go  into  the  building  business  and  erect  its  own 
establishments.  The  English  and  Scotch  working- 
men  had  seemed  never  to  find  the  contract  system 
obnoxious,  as  their  American  brethren  had.  Nor  un- 
til a  very  recent  day  have  municipal  contracts  ever 
attempted  to  protect  the  workmen  by  clauses  pre- 
scribing maximum  hours  and  minimum  wages.  The 
master  of  works  and  his  men  have  looked  out  for  the 
interests  of  the  ratepayers  only.  They  prepare  the 
plans  and  specifications,  and  they  carefully  inspect  the 
work  as  it  progresses.  It  should  be  added,  however, 
that  since  1890  there  has  grown  up,  especially  in  Lon- 
don, a  strong  movement  for  direct  municipal  employ- 
ment as  against  all  forms  of  public  contracting. 

Streets  and  paving,  sewers,  buildings  for  the  fire,    The  master 

,.  .,     ,.  .'      .  ,  ,       '    of  works  and 

police,  sanitation,  city-improvement,  park,  market,  ins  duties. 
and  other  departments,  and  municipal  constructions  of 
various  kinds,  are  designed  in  the  office  of  the  "  Mas- 
ter of  Public  Works  and  City  Architect,"  and  carried 
out  'under  the  supervision  of  himself  and  his  staff.  In 
the  English  towns  this  officer  would  be  called  "  bor- 
ough surveyor,"  and  in  America  he  would  be  the 
"city  engineer,"  although  the  Glasgow  master  of 
works  has  a  rather  larger  scope  than  corresponding 
officials  in  the  United  States.  The  recent  incumbent, 
Mr.  John  Carrick,  was  a  very  distinguished  man  among 
British  architects  and  civil  engineers,  and  he  had  held 
his  office  for  forty  years  or  more.  Probably  no  man  in 
the  world  occupying  a  like  post  has  planned  and  car- 
ried out  a  larger  amount  of  solid  public  work  than 


126 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Street- 
paving. 


Absence  of 
jobbery. 


"Better- 
ment "  prin- 
ciple not  in 
use. 


Mr.  Carrick.  He  had  as  his  assistants  three  compe- 
tent architects,  five  civil  engineers,  a  large  out-of-door 
staff  of  inspectors  for  buildings,  sewers,  pavements, 
etc.,  and  an  indoor  staff  of  draftsmen  and  clerks. 

Glasgow  paving  is  nearly  all  of  granite  blocks.  There 
is  some  wood  and  some  asphalt  in  use,  but  neither  of 
these  materials  is  well  suited  to  the  climatic  condi- 
tions. Granite  is  cheap  in  Scotland,  and  a  well-laid 
pavement  resting  on  a  foundation  of  concrete  is  prac- 
tically indestructible.  Mr.  Carrick  once  told  me  that  a 
redressing  of  the  surface  after  ten  years'  use,  with  a 
shortening  of  the  blocks  by  10  per  cent,  would  make 
the  pavement  as  good  as  new  for  another  ten  years, 
and  so  on.  For  current  repairs  of  streets  and  sewers, 
the  city  of  course  keeps  its  own  force  of  workmen. 

Glasgow  has  been  so  fortunate  as  almost  wholly  to 
escape  scandals  and  imputations  of  jobbery  in  the  let- 
ting of  contracts  for  public  works ;  and  the  one  or 
two  instances  in  which  vague  charges  have  led  to  in- 
vestigation, have  only  served  to  vindicate  the  honesty 
and  sound  business  character  of  the  department.  The 
works  as  a  whole  are  admirable  for  suitability  of  de- 
sign and  solidity  of  construction. 

As  regards  the  financial  side  of  street,  sewer,  and 
bridge  making,  the  whole  expense  is  defrayed  from  a 
public  levy  on  what  is  known  as  the  "  statute  labor  " 
account.  In  the  good  old  days  the  statutes  of  the 
realm  required  every  man  to  turn  out  and  do  his  share 
of  work  upon  the  highways.  So  far  as  the  cities  are 
concerned,  the  old  requirement  has  been  converted 
into  a  money  tax.  The  special  assessment  plan  for 
paving  and  sewerage  is  not  in  use, — although  in  Glas- 
gow, as  all  over  Great  Britain,  there  has  arisen  a  de- 
mand for  the  adoption  in  city  improvement  works  of 
a  familiar  American  principle  known  in  England  as 
"  betterment/' —  i.  e.}  the  principle  of  charging  all  or 


A  STUDY  OP  GLASGOW 


127 


CHAP.  IV. 


Municipal 
building. 


American 
origin  of 
street  rail- 
ways. 


part  of  a  public  improvement,  such  as  a  sewer,  a  pave- 
ment, a  sidewalk,  a  bridge,  or  a  park,  against  property 
directly  benefited.  "Betterment"  will  carry  the  day. 
A  magnificent  municipal  building  has  recently  been 
completed,  at  a  cost  of  about  $2,250,000,  with  office 
accommodations  for  the  various  departments,  which 
had  previously  been  scattered. 

In  all  of  Glasgow's  municipal  experiences,  I  find 
nothing  so  likely  to  interest  city  authorities  elsewhere 
as  that  which  relates  to  street  railways.  It  is  an  ex- 
perience which  may  well  make  American  cities  blush 
for  their  own  short-sightedness.  Street  railways,  or 
"  tram  lines "  as  they  are  generally  called  in  Great 
Britain,  were  an  American  invention,  and  the  first 
ones  in  London  and  some  other  English  towns  were 
constructed  by  American  companies.  It  was  none 
other  than  that  enterprising  American  citizen  George 
Francis  Train  who  first  proposed  to  build  tram  lines 
in  Glasgow.  Having  laid  a  line  in  London  and  an- 
other in  Birkenhead,  Mr.  Train  undertook  in  1861-62 
to  get  parliamentary  authority  to  begin  operations  in 
Glasgow.  His  bill  was  opposed  by  the  city  authori- 
ties, who  intercepted  him  by  inserting  in  a  bill  then 
pending  for  the  increase  of  the  city's  powers  in  other 
directions  a  clause  giving  the  council  power  to  lay 
tram  lines.  The  new  power  was  not  utilized,  however, 
and  in  1869-70  two  syndicates,  one  or  both  being  of 
American  origin,  again  promoted  bills  in  Parliament 

f  j     ^      ni  '4.-U        T-  Beginning  of 

for  power  to  invade  the  Glasgow  streets  with  a  horse-    Glasgow's 
railway  system.    Again  the  authorities  were  aroused,     'system^ 
and  the  result  was  a  compromise  all  around.    It  was 
agreed  that  the  city  should  keep  the  control  of  its 
streets,  any  part  of  which  it  was  so  unwilling  to 
surrender,  and  that  it  should  construct  and  own  the 
tram  lines,  while  the  two  syndicates  were  to  unite  in 


128 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT   IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Terms  of 

operating 

lease. 


Low  fares 
and  favor- 
able con- 
ditions. 


Working- 
men's  half- 
penny fares. 


Experiences 
of  the  leas- 
ing com- 
pany. 


one  company  and  work  the  lines  on  a  lease.  The  first 
lines  were  opened  in  1872,  and  the  lease  then  made 
was  to  terminate  in  1894.  By  its  terms  the  company 
was  required  to  pay  to  the  corporation  (1)  the  annual  in- 
terest charge  on  the  full  amount  of  the  city's  invest- 
ment, (2)  a  yearly  sum  for  a  sinking-fund  large  enough 
to  clear  the  entire  cost  of  the  lines  at  the  expiration 
of  the  lease,  (3)  a  renewal  fund  of  4  per  cent,  per  an- 
num on  the  cost  of  the  lines,  out  of  which  they  were 
to  be  kept  in  proper  condition  and  restored  to  the  city 
in  perfect  order  and  entirely  as  good  as  new  in  1894, 
and  (4)  a  yearly  rental  of  $750  per  street  mile.  Such 
were  the  money  conditions  of  the  lease ;  and  certainly 
the  city's  interests  were  well  looked  after.  But,  mean- 
while, the  interests  of  the  public  as  passengers  were 
equally  well  secured.  First,  it  was  provided  that  in 
no  case  should  the  charges  exceed  a  penny  per  mile. 
This,  it  should  be  remembered,  was  at  a  time  when 
fares  were  nowhere  else  less  than  2d.  Further,  the 
parliamentary  act  described  a  number  of  important 
"runs," — those  most  likely  to  be  used  by  laboring 
men  and  large  masses  of  population,  several  of  them 
considerably  exceeding  a  mile, — and  specified  that 
one  penny  should  be  the  charge  for  these,  and  that 
morning  and  evening  cars  should  be  run  for  working- 
men  at  half  price,  equal  to  one  American  cent. 

The  company  which  accepted  these  remarkable  terms 
took  advantage  of  a  passing  mania  for  investment  in 
tramways,  and  sold  the  lease  to  a  new  company  of 
local  capitalists  for  a  premium  of  about  $750,000. 
This  new  company  experienced  hard  times  for  two  or 
three  years;  for  besides  running  expenses,  interest 
upon  the  capital  invested  in  the  business,  and  the  heavy 
payments  on  the  four  accounts  to  the  corporation, 
there  was  the  burden  of  the  enormous  premium  to 
carry.  Not  until  1875  -  76  did  it  begin  to  pay  its  stock- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  129 

holders  dividends.    After  1880,  however,  the  business    CHAP.  iv. 
flourished,  and  dividends  averaging  10  per  cent,  were 
paid,  after  writing  off  each  year  a  due  proportion  of 
the  unfortunate  premium  charge. 

The  city  was  so  compact — covering,  as  I  have  said, 
only  6111  acres  of  ground  before  the  extension  of 
1891  —  that  a  large  mileage  of  tramways  was  not  to  be 
expected.  The  total  of  31  miles  at  that  time  served 
the  public  very  well,  the  system  providing  continuous  the  system. 
lines  across  the  city  from  north  to  south  and  from 
east  to  west,  with  convenient  access  from  the  center 
to  almost  every  outlying  neighborhood.  In  arrang- 
ing the  system  originally,  just  at  the  time  when  the 
great  improvement  scheme  was  fairly  begun,  the 
authorities  had  in  mind  a  service  that  would  help 
them  to  relieve  the  central  congestion  of  population 
and  would  aid  in  the  symmetrical  development  of  the 
city.  To  this  end  they  wished  to  build  certain  addi- 
tional lines  that  did  not  seem  to  the  operating  com- 
pany to  promise  immediate  profits.  The  system  as 
scheduled  by  the  act  of  Parliament  embraced  about 
17  miles  of  lines,  and  the  city  found  that  it  had  no 
authority  under  its  lease  to  compel  the  company  to 
work  additional  lines  on  the  same  conditions.  A 
compromise  was  made  by  which  the  company  agreed 
to  pay  the  interest  and  the  renewal-cost  upon  the  new 
lines,  and  was  relieved  from  rental  and  sinking-fund 
charges.  This  was  perfectly  fair  under  the  circum- 
stances. 

The  total  capital  investment  of  the  city  had  been   Finances  at 

i  •     -i  s\n  n    n     •  i  expiration  of 

a  little  more  than  $1,700,000,  interest  charges  upon  lease  in  1394. 
which  were  paid  by  the  company.  On  the  1st  of  July, 
1894,  the  sinking-fund,  provided  by  the  company,  had 
reached  somewhat  more  than  $1,000,000,  paying  the 
full  cost  of  the  original  system.  There  remained  the 
cost  of  the  newer  lines,  some  14  miles  in  extent.  The 

I.- 9 


130 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Failure  of 

negotiations 

for  a  new 

lease. 


Municipal 
operation  de- 
cided upon. 


Unsuccess- 
ful negotia- 
tions for  old 
plant. 


renewal  fund  had  left  the  system  in  perfect  repair. 
The  city  had  received  in  rental  money  a  sum  amount- 
ing to  about  $225,000.  As  for  the  company,  it  had 
paid  off  its  premium  incubus,  had  earned  good  divi- 
dends, and  had  made  due  allowance  for  depreciation 
in  the  value  of  its  working  plant. 

It  was  expected  that  when  the  time  came  for  mak- 
ing a  new  arrangement,  the  old  company  would  be 
granted  a  further  lease,  on  terms  still  more  favorable 
to  the  city  treasury  and  to  the  general  public,  and 
that  after  1894  the  tramways  of  Glasgow  would  yield 
a  large  municipal  income.  But  tedious  negotiations 
resulted  in  a  total  failure  to  roach  any  agreement  with 
the  company ;  and  during  the  progress  of  these  nego- 
tiations there  began  to  be  heard  among  the  citizens  a 
very  distinct  demand  for  the  experiment  of  direct 
municipal  operation  of  the  lines.  This  demand  grew 
to  the  point  of  practical  unanimity  on  the  part  of  the 
community,  and  the  council,  having  obtained  due 
authority  from  Parliament,  voted  to  obey  the  popu- 
lar will.  It  was  then  expected  that  the  stables,  cars, 
horses,  and  total  operating  plant  could  be  purchased 
from  the  retiring  company.  But  a  new  difficulty 
arose.  The  tramways  committee  of  the  council  re- 
quired from  the  company  a  promise  not  to  engage  in 
the  operation  of  omnibus  lines  in  competition  with 
the  municipal  street-cars,  in  case  the  city  should  take 
over  the  company's  existing  plant  at  a  fair  valuation. 
The  company  refused  to  make  this  agreement,  and 
negotiations  were  broken  off.  It  was  then  determined 
by  the  council,  with  the  very  general  approbation  of 
the  citizens,  to  proceed  upon  its  own  methods  to  create 
a  working  plant,  and  to  have  everything  in  readiness 
to  begin  operations  on  July  1,  1894. 

The  first  and  most  important  step  was  the  selection 
of  a  general  manager.  Mr.  John  Young,  who  had 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


131 


pal  plant. 


since  1875  rendered  such  rare  service  as  the  head  of    CHAP.  iv. 

the  Cleansing  Department,  was  appointed  to  the  new 

post.    With  an  energetic  and  able  committee  of  the  creation  of  a 

0  new  mumci- 

council  behind  him,  Mr.  Young  proceeded  rapidly  to 
assemble  the  elements  of  the  most  complete  and  well- 
devised  horse-railway  system  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
Nine  large  stations,  at  a  total  cost  of  $500,000,  were 
constructed  in  different  parts  of  the  city  as  car  barns, 
stables,  etc.,  all  of  them  being  built  with  particular 
reference  to.  the  early  abandonment  of  horses  and 
the  use  of  cable  and  electric  systems.  Mr.  Young 
invented  an  improved  type  of  cars,  and  several  hun- 
dred of  them  were  built  on  short  notice.  He  pur- 
chased three  thousand  fine  horses  and  trained  them 
for  their  work,  and  engaged  thirteen  hundred  men  of 
unusual  intelligence  and  fitness.  In  connection  with 
the  stations  Mr.  Young  established  car-building  and 
repair  shops,  harness-making  shops,  and  other  ad- 
juncts to  a  complete  and  economical  organization. 
There  was  much  disappointment  expressed  in  Glas- 
gow because  it  was  not  found  expedient  to  mark  the 
municipalization  of  the  street  passenger  service  by 
the  introduction  of  improved  mechanical  motive 
power,  in  place  of  horses.  But  there  had  been  too 
little  time  in  which  to  determine  upon  the  best  me- 
chanical system,  and  it  was  therefore  deemed  safest 
to  begin  with  "  horse  haulage  "  and  to  transform  the 
lines  gradually.  There  was  much  discussion  of  the 
question  what  rates  of  fare  should  be  fixed.  A  uni- 
form penny  fare  had  many  strong  advocates.  But  it 
was  finally  decided  to  divide  the  lines  into  half-mile 
stages  and  to  charge  a  halfpenny  (equal  to  one 
American  cent)  for  each  stage.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered that  Glasgow  is  exceedingly  compact,  and  that 
the  bulk  of  the  patronage  of  the  tramways  comes 
from  passengers  riding  less  than  a  mile.  It  is  be- 


Question  of 
motive 
power. 


Question  of 
fares. 


132 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Shorter 

hours  for 

employees. 


Success  of 
this  new  mu- 
nicipal de- 
partment. 


Competition 
of other tran- 
sit systems. 


lieved  that  the  halfpenny  fare  for  short  rides  will  add 
a  large  element  of  patronage  that  the  uniform  penny 
rate  would  have  missed.  Experience  alone  can  settle 
the  question  whether  the  new  rates  will  be  as  advan- 
tageous as  was  expected.  After  a  few  weeks  of  trial 
it  was  found  advisable,  without  altering  the  basis  of 
the  system  of  halfpenny  fares,  to  fix  certain  long 
penny  "  runs  "  especially  for  working-men. 

The  lessee  company  had  kept  its  drivers  and  con- 
ductors at  their  posts  for  long  hours  —  often  not  less 
than  fourteen,  twelve  being  the  minimum.  The  new 
municipal  management  makes  a  ten-hour  day,  and 
3xes  a  satisfactory  schedule  of  wages. 

The  service  was  begun  on  July  1, 1894,  with  success 
and  high  prestige,  and  with  every  prospect  of  proving 
beneficial  to  the  community  and  lucrative  to  the  pub- 
lic treasury.  Some  extensions  of  the  lines  were  at 
once  begun,  and  preparations  were  also  set  on  foot  for 
the  early  use  of  cables  on  several  routes.  Provision 
was  made  for  the  electric  lighting  of  the  cars,  and  in 
every  detail  it  was  determined  to  give  Glasgow,  under 
direct  municipal  operation,  the  best  surface-transit 
system  in  Great  Britain.  The  experiment  can  but  be 
observed  with  the  greatest  attention  and  interest  by 
municipal  authorities  everywhere. 

Municipal  tramways  in  Glasgow  will  have  to  meet 
the  competition  of  a  very  elaborate  system  of  omni- 
buses established  by  the  retiring  tramway  company, 
which  was  left  with  a  great  plant  on  its  hands  and 
with  plenty  of  experience  and  ability.  '  At  the  time  of 
the  assumption  of  transit  as  a  municipal  function,  more- 
over, there  were  approaching  completion  certain  lines 
of  underground  road  to  connect  with  the  great  rail- 
way stations  and  to  provide  quick  transit  across  the 
city ;  and  it  was  inevitable  that  the  operation  of  the 
underground  system  should  affect  somewhat  the  future 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


133 


Municipal 
market  sys- 
tem. 


of  the  surface  lines.  But  these  considerations  had  full  CHAP.  iv. 
weight  with  the  council,  whose  members  were  broad 
enough  in  their  views  to  perceive  that  the  provision  of 
varied  and  ample  means  of  cheap  transit  for  the  peo- 
ple was  a  far  greater  desideratum  than  the  making 
of  large  profits  out  of  the  working  of  a  municipal 
monopoly. 


Of  market  arrangements  in  ancient  Glasgow  I  shall 
have  nothing  to  say,  but  shall  begin  with  1865,  when 
by  act  of  Parliament  the  market  management  was  con- 
solidated and  vested  in  the  city  council  as  a  "  market 
trust."  At  present  the  city  owns  and  controls  (1)  a 
great  central  fruit  and  produce  market  in  which  prac- 
tically all  of  the  commission  and  wholesale  business 
of  Glasgow  in  these  lines  of  trade  is  carried  on,  and 
above  which  is  a  very  large  public  hall,  let  by  the 
authorities  for  concerts  and  various  gatherings.  This 
market  is  a  time-honored  institution,  and  has  always 
been  called  the  "  Bazaar."  It  should,  perhaps,  be  ex- 
plained that  there  are  no  "  truck "  or  retail  markets 
in  Glasgow,  the  small  business  all  being  done  in  the 
shops.  (2)  The  fish-market  is  an  important  establish- 
ment, through  which  several  hundred  thousands  of 
boxes  and  barrels  of  white  fish,  haddocks,  and  her- 
rings pass  every  year.  (3)  An  interesting  novelty  is 
the  "  old  clothes  market,"  a  great  building  full  of  stalls 
occupied  by  dealers  in  second-hand  clothing  for  men, 
women,  and  children,  in  old  hats,  old  shoes,  and  all 
sorts  of  cast-off  articles.  Undoubtedly  its  bargains 
are  a  blessing  to  the  poor.  But  far  more  important 
than  these  are  (4)  the  cattle-market,  (5)  the  dead-meat 
market,  (6)  the  public  slaughter-houses,  and  (7)  the 
great  yards  and  abattoirs  at  the  docks  for  foreign 
cattle.  In  a  central  and  convenient  locality  the  au- 
thorities have  a  tract  of  twenty  acres  or  more,  occu- 


L—  9* 


134 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Live-stock 
and  meat 
markets. 


Exclusive 
municipal 
slaughter- 
houses. 


pied  with  a  great  roofed  live-stock  market,  having  ac- 
commodations for  many  thousands  of  animals.  Ad- 
joining on  one  side  is  a  separate  market  for  dressed 
beef,  etc.,  and  on  the  other  side  are  very  extensive 
slaughter-houses.  All  the  trading  in  live  animals  in 
Glasgow  —  i.e.,  in  native  British  animals  —  is  done  in 
this  cattle -market,  and  from  400,000  to  500,000  cattle, 
sheep,  etc.,  pass  through  it  annually.  The  dead-meat 
market  was  established  in  1876,  when  American  dressed 
beef  began  to  arrive  in  large  quantities,  as  a  center  of 
supply  for  the  retail  meat-shops.  The  importation  of 
dressed  meat  has  expanded  remarkably  since  1888, 
and  the  meat-shops  have  learned  to  buy  dressed  meat 
rather  than  live  animals.  So  this  great  market  for 
"carcasses"  maintains  an  increasing  activity.  All 
slaughtering  in  Glasgow  is  done  in  the  public  munici- 
pal slaughter-houses,  there  being  two  large  establish- 
ments in  other  quarters  of  the  city,  besides  the  one 
adjoining  the  cattle-market.  Of  necessity  these  places 
are  extensive  and  well  appointed,  and  it  is  sufficient 
here  to  say  that  an  exceedingly  low  charge  is  made 
for  each  animal  slaughtered.  More  than  a  quarter  of 
a  million  animals  are  slaughtered  in  them  annually. 
In  addition  to  these,  there  is  at  the  docks  an  exten- 
sive establishment  exclusively  for  the  reception  and 
slaughter  of  beeves  from  the  United  States,  provision 
existing  for  the  treatment  of  two  thousand  at  a  time. 
The  annual  importation  of  these  cattle  is  about  40,000 
head,  all  of  which  must  be  slaughtered  at  the  docks 
as  a  precaution  against  contagious  disease.  For  Ca- 
nadian cattle,  a  similar  number  of  which  are  imported, 
there  is  ample  provision  made  by  the  city  authorities 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  harbor.  The  Canadian  an- 
imals are  presumed  to  be  healthy,  and  many  of  them 
go  to  the  farms  to  be  fattened. 
The  Sanitary  Department  and  the  Markets  Depart- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  135 

ment  cooperate  in  measures  for  the  protection  of  the    CHAP.  iv. 
public  health  against  unsuitable  food;  and  the  con- 
trol of  slaughter-houses  and  of  flesh,  fish,  and  produce     aspectsf 
marts  by  the  municipal  authorities  is  deemed  a  point 
of  great  advantage. 

The  city  has  market  property  valued  at  about  $1,200,-  Markets  are 
000,  not  including  the  dock  cattle-yards  and  abattoirs;  a  Pa°sset. m 
and  the  indebtedness  of  the  market  account  is  perhaps 
$700,000.    The  income  of  the  market  trust  from  ren- 
tals, slaughter-house  fees,  etc.,  is  $100,000  per  annum, 
and  the  total  expenditure,  including  both  interest  and 
sinking-fund,  comes  well  within  that  amount.     So 
that  the  markets  undertaking  is,  incidentally,  a  source 
of  net  revenue. 

Until  1860  the  people  of  Glasgow  had  never  been 
taxed  for  the  purchase  or  maintenance  of  public  parks. 
The  "  Glasgow  Green  "  on  the  river  bank,  a  fine  tract 
of  136  acres,  which  had  been  the  town  commons  from 
time  immemorial,  sufficed  until  that  date.  But  the 
demand  for  a  park  in  newer  Glasgow  at  the  west  end, 
and  the  acquisition  by  legacy  of  the  beginnings  of  a 
public  art-gallery,  led  to  the  securing  of  legislation  Acquisition 
which  constituted  the  city  council  a  "  parks  and  gal-  since  iseo. 
leries  trust."  The  West-end  or  Kelvinside  Park  was 
thereupon  acquired;  and  some  years  later,  as  a  sort 
of  offset,  the  Queen's  Park  south  of  the  Clyde  was 
opened,  and  the  Alexandra  Park  at  the  east  end, 
created  by  the  improvement  trust,  was  given  over 
for  management  to  the  parks  administration.  Kel- 
vingrove  has  80  acres,  twenty  of  the  100  acres  ori- 
ginally purchased  having  been  platted  and  sold  on 
advantageous  terms.  The  Queen's  Park,  of  141  acres, 
is  an  excellent  instance  of  financiering.  The  original 
purchase  was  245  acres,  and  the  sales  for  residence- 
sites  have  more  than  paid  for  the  park.  Lands  sold 


136 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


piay- 


CHAP.  rv.     in  like  manner  adjoining  Alexandra  Park  (which  con- 
tains 85  acres),  or  lands  still  held  for  sale,  will  more 

instances  of  than  repay  the  cost  of  this  public  pleasure-ground. 
ciering.  More  recently  the  parks  trust  has  acquired  Cathkin 
Braes,  a  50-acre  tract  four  miles  from  the  city,  and 
the  years  1890-94  have  been  remarkable  for  the  devel- 
opment of  the  park  system  in  many  ways.  A  number 
of  squares  and  several  old  churchyards  have  also  re- 
cently become  park  property;  so  that  Glasgow  has, 
although  tardily,  accomplished  a  good  deal  in  the 
important  direction  of  providing  small  open  spaces. 
But  a  great  deal  more  ought  to  be  done  for  a  popu- 
lation of  800,000  which  sorely  needs  playgrounds  for 
children  and  recreation  space  for  adults.  The  policy 
of  providing  playgrounds  has  now  been  entered  upon 
in  a  practical  manner,  and  will  have  much  to  show  by 
1900.  Lands  held  by  the  parks  trust  for  sale  or 
"feuing"  will  ultimately  more  than  pay  the  out- 
standing total  indebtedness  of  about  $1,250,000.  At 
present  a  rate  of  twopence  in  the  £  is  levied  for  main- 
tenance of  parks,  museums,  and  galleries. 

Bequests  of  two  very  important  private  collections 
of  paintings  by  old  masters,  to  which  additions  have 
been  made  by  numerous  minor  bequests  and  by  mod- 
erate purchases,  have  given  the  corporation  of  Glas- 
gow  a  picture-gallery  which,  though  somewhat  lacking 
in  the  elements  of  popularity,  has  educational  and  his- 
torical value  of  a  high  order,  and  which,  when  properly 
displayed  in  a  suitable  building  and  reinforced  by 
purchases  of  modern  works,  will  be  recognized  as  one 
of  the  notable  art  museums  of  Europe.  In  Kelvin- 
grove  Park  the  corporation  has  also  a  museum  build- 
ing containing  various  collections  of  antiquities  and 
of  objects  illustrating  industrial  processes  and  the 
natural  sciences.  Municipal  encouragement  is  aiding 
a  rapid  growth  of  popular  interest  in  art  and  science. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  137 

Glasgow  is  now  the  only  important  town  in  Great    CHAP.  iv. 
Britain  that  has  refused  to  avail  itself  of  the  advan- 
tages offered  by  the  Free  Libraries  Act.    That  act,  it    adopt  Free 

n  4.  i    •  -1     4.1.  4.1.  Libraries 

may  be  well  to  explain,  gave  town  councils  the  author-  Act. 
ity  to  establish  public  libraries  and  support  them  by  a 
tax  limited  to  one  penny  in  the  £  of  assessed  rental 
valuation,  provided  the  act  were  adopted  by  a  majority 
vote  of  the  ratepayers.  The  matter  has  been  sub- 
mitted to  the  voters  of  Glasgow  at  three  different 
times  —  the  last  plebiscite  being  in  April,  1888,  when 
of  89,000  persons  entitled  to  vote,  13,500  cast  their  bal- 
lots in  favor  of  the  act,  23,000  voted  against  it,  and 
52,500  did  not  take  enough  interest  to  vote  at  all. 
Glasgow  has  led  the  other  English  and  Scotch  towns 
in  most  matters  of  municipal  enterprise,  but  it  lags 
behind  quite  unaccountably  in  respect  to  libraries. 
Fortunately,  public-spirited  citizens  have  done  some- 

,,  .  ,  A    ,  .  .  The  Stirling 

thing  to  supply  the  lack.  The  Stirling  Library,  Library. 
founded  by  a  small  bequest  in  1792,  and  governed  by 
trustees  composed  of  the  lord  provost,  a  committee 
of  the  council,  and  representatives  of  several  other 
permanent  Glasgow  bodies,  is  free  to  the  public  as  a 
reference  collection  and  contains  about  50,000  vol- 
umes. Managed  in  connection  with  it  is  the  Baillie 
Library,  recently  opened,  supported  by  a  fund  of 
nearly  $100,000  bequeathed  by  a  Glasgow  lawyer. 
Still  larger  and  more  catholic  in  its  character  and  ob- 
jects is  the  Mitchell  Free  Library,  founded  by  a  mer-  Library.6 
chant  and  town-councilor,  who  bequeathed  $350,000 
for  that  purpose.  It  has  been  open  since  1878,  and 
has  received  other  important  gifts  of  books  and  money, 
so  that  it  has  already  accumulated  100,000  volumes, 
having  made  a  progress  in  its  first  decade  that  has 
hardly  been  paralleled  by  any  other  library  in  the 
world.  "Without  large  funds,  and  hampered  by  most 
inadequate  temporary  quarters,  the  zeal  of  the  coun- 


138 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Poor  relief 
and  educa- 
tion. 


cil  committee  on  libraries,  and  the  indefatigable 
efforts  of  the  wise  and  accomplished  librarian,  Mr. 
Barrett,  who  has  held  that  post  from  the  outset,  per- 
formed great  things.  In  1891  a  removal  to  adequate 
quarters  began  a  new  era  for  this  excellent  institution. 
The  Mitchell  Library's  periodical  room,  containing  300 
or  more  current  publications,  is  the  completest  in 
Great  Britain  for  practical  use,  and  is  crowded  with 
readers.  In  this  and  the  Stirling  collections,  Glasgow 
possesses  the  nucleus  of  a  magnificent  public  library. 
Mr.  Barrett  is  in  hearty  accord  with  the  best  Ameri- 
can ideas  of  library  administration,  and  he  would  make 
the  library  a  true  people's  university.  His  ideal  for 
Glasgow  is  a  central  library  with  ten  branches,  each 
having  reference,  loan,  news-room,  and  lecture-room 
departments ;  and  he  assures  me  that  with  the  cooper- 
ation of  the  existing  foundations,  the  penny  rate  al- 
lowed by  the  Free  Libraries  Act  would  accomplish  it  all. 
It  is  certainly  to  be  hoped  that  some  means  can  be 
found  to  placate  the  hostile  shop-keeping  element  which 
has  hitherto  defeated  the  act  because  it  means  more 
rates  to  pay. 

Poor-relief  and  public  education  are  not  in  the 
United  Kingdom  made  functions  of  municipal  corpo- 
rations, but  are  intrusted  to  distinct  elective  local 
bodies.  None  the  less  it  may  fairly  fall  within  the 
scope  of  this  resume"  to  state  briefly  how  the  people  of 
Glasgow  provide  for  these  two  extremely  important 
objects.  In  a  word,  let  me  say  that  Scotland,  urban 
as  well  as  rural,  is  divided  into  parishes,  each  of 
which  has  an  elective  board  that  levies  poor-rates, 
dispenses  relief,  and  has  entire  charge  of  the  indigent ; 
while  elementary  education  in  Scotland  is  now  uni- 
versal and  compulsory  under  the  management  of 
elective  school-boards,  school  taxes  being  collected 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


139 


CHAP.  IV. 


Growth  of 
the  Glas- 
gow public 
schools. 


by  the  several  parish  authorities,  although  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Glasgow  School  Board  extends  over  the 
entire  city.  A  magnificent  array  of  public-school 
buildings  has  appeared  in  Glasgow  since  1873.  In- 
deed it  would  not  be  easy  to  name  any  other  city  in 
the  English-speaking  world  that  has  within  a  period  of 
twenty  years  created  so  complete  a  "plant  "for  the 
work  of  elementary  education.  In  the  old  times,  par- 
ish schools  and  private  schools  were  the  rule  in  Glas- 
gow as  well  as  throughout  Scotland.  How  the  faci- 
lities provided  by  the  Glasgow  School  Board  have 
gained  in  favor  may  be  shown  through  a  few  sum- 
mary figures.  In  1881  the  enrolment  in  public 
schools  was  37,263,  in  Roman  Catholic  schools  13,- 
864,  and  in  all  other  schools  19,680.  In  1890  the 
numbers  were  65,306  in  the  public  schools,  15,354  in 
the  Catholic  schools,  and  5739  in  all  others.  The 
non-Catholic  private  and  church  schools  are  rapidly 
giving  way  before  the  superiority  of  the  schools  pro- 
vided by  the  public  board.  As  I  have  explained  in  a 
previous  chapter,  the  Glasgow  School  Board  is  com- 
posed of  fifteen  members,  elected  on  general  ticket 
by  the  whole  city  every  three  years,  the  voters  having  Election  of 
the  privilege  of  cumulating  their  votes;  that  is  to  Board, 
say,  the  elector  may  give  one  vote  apiece  to  fifteen 
candidates,  may  give  fifteen  votes  to  one  candidate, 
or  may  distribute  his  fifteen  votes  in  any  way  he  likes 
among  any  number  of  candidates  between  one  and 
fifteen.  The  result  in  Glasgow  has  been  satisfactory. 
The  board  is  widely  representative,  has  the  public 
confidence,  and  has  been  able  to  proceed  boldly  and 
brilliantly  with  its  work. 

Pupils'  fees  are  the  rule  in  British  public  schools ; 
but  inasmuch  as  school  attendance  is  compulsory,  it  is 
obvious  that  there  can  be  no  enforcement  of  fees  as 
against  the  very  poor.  There  is  a  close  relationship 


140 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT   IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Classifica- 
tion by 
means  of 


School 
finances. 


between  the  School  Board  of  Glasgow  and  the  Boards 
of  Guardians  of  the  Poor ;  and  it  is  a  part  of  the  duty 
of  these  guardians  to  pay  the  school  fees  of  all  chil- 
dren whose  parents  are  indigent.  With  Glasgow's 
great  density,  and  its  close  commingling  in  the  same 
neighborhoods  of  all  classes  of  people,  it  would  not 
be  practically  feasible  to  attempt  to  instruct  all  chil- 
dren, rich  and  poor,  in  the  same  rooms.  An  ingeni- 
ous provision  in  the  fixing  of  tuition  fees  affords  a 
practical  classification  of  pupils.  Accessible  in  every 
district  are  schools  having  the  same  quality  of  in- 
struction, and  the  same  advantages  in  all  particulars, 
but  having  three  very  different  scales  of  tuition 
charge.  The  wealthier  classes,  as  a  rule,  patronize 
the  higher  priced  schools,  and  thus  keep  their  children 
from  contact  with  the  children  of  poverty.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  system  to  prevent  a  poor  man  from 
sending  his  child  to  the  school  that  exacts  high  fees 
if  he  chooses  to  pay  the  difference,  and  vice  versa. 
The  system  would  not  be  approved  in  America,  nor 
would  it  be  feasible  in  rural  communities.  But  it  is 
a  practical  success  in  Glasgow,  and  it  has  given  the 
public-school  system  a  leverage  against  the  private 
schools  that  could  never  have  been  gained  by  any 
other  means.  The  higher  fees  that  the  richer  chil- 
dren pay  go  toward  the  maintenance  of  the  system 
as  a  whole,  and  do  not  procure  any  superior  facilities. 
Pupils'  fees  do  not  raise  a  large  proportion  of  the  sum 
needed  to  support  the  schools,  and  since  1889  they 
have  been  greatly  reduced.  Thus  in  1890  the  levy  of 
school-rates  by  the  board  procured  a  revenue  of  £77,- 
000,  and  from  the  annual  grants  made  by  the  general 
government  £70,000  was  received,  while  from  pupils' 
fees  there  accrued  only  £27,000.  In  the  period  from 
1881  to  1891  the  board 'expended  £500,000  ($2,500,000) 
of  borrowed  money  for  new  buildings. 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW  141 

The  public  authorities  of  Glasgow  realize  the  mod-  CHAP.  iv. 
era  necessity  of  technical  education  that  shall  at  once 
help  to  sustain  the  great  industries  that  are  the  main-  Provision 
stay  of  the  community,  and  help  young  men  to  enter  education? 
upon  the  means  of  a  livelihood  without  abandoning 
their  native  city.  A  number  of  older  institutions  have 
been  amalgamated  under  the  name  of  "  The  Glasgow 
and  West  of  Scotland  Technical  College,"  governed 
by  a  board  of  thirty  trustees,  of  whom  the  town  coun- 
cil names  several,  while  others  are  appointed  by  the 
school-board,  the  Glasgow  University,  the  engineers 
and  ship-builders,  the  Trades'  House,  the  Merchants' 
House,  and  other  permanent  and  representative  bodies. 
The  scientific  and  .technical  evening  classes  of  this 
great  institution  have  a  total  attendance  of  some  three 
thousand  young  men,  most  of  whom  are  apprentices 
or  working  artisans.  The  day  classes  have  also  a  con- 
siderable attendance.  The  institution  is  made  directly 
promotive  of  the  ship-building,  chemical,  and  textile 
industries  of  the  Clyde  valley. 

I  am  tempted  to  devote  some  consideration  to  the 
work  of  poor-relief  in  Glasgow, —  to  the  methods  and  tife^oor? 
results  of  that  branch  of  local  administration  which 
taxes  most  heavily  the  resources  of  the  community. 
But  I  have  elsewhere  explained  the  mode  of  creation 
of  the  boards  that  administer  the  poor-law  in  three 
separate  Glasgow  districts  or  parishes ;  and  there  is, 
perhaps,  nothing  sufficiently  distinctive  in  their  man- 
agement of  poor-houses  and  infirmaries,  their  conduct 
of  insane  asylums,  and  their  dispensation  of  outdoor 
relief  to  require  a  detailed  account.  It  is  enough  to 
say  that  the  practical  success  attained  by  the  compe- 
tent and  faithful  administrators  of  the  poor-law  is 
more  worthy  of  praise  than  the  system  itself,  and 
that  it  will  be  a  distinct  gain  when  the  care  of  the 
poor  becomes  a  direct  municipal  function.  It  should 


142 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IV. 


Reform  of 
the  system. 


The  Clyde 

Navigation 

Trust. 


A  municipal 
enterprise. 


be  added  that  Scotland  will  undoubtedly  have  extended 
to  it,  with  the  least  possible  delay,  the  popularization 
of  the  poor-law  system  that  was  embodied  in  the  Lo- 
cal Government  Act  of  1894  for  England  and  Wales. 
That  act  abolishes  plural  voting  and  makes  any  citizen, 
male  or  female,  eligible  for  membership  on  the  poor- 
law  boards.  It  will  in  due  time,  doubtless,  be  followed 
by  legislation  that  will  wholly  or  in  part  assimilate  the 
administration  of  poor-relief  with  other  tasks  of  local 
government. 

I  have  only  to  add  to  this  exposition  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  Glasgow  municipality  some  brief  remarks 
upon  the  work  of  a  special  municipal  agency  to  which, 
more  than  to  anything  else,  the  greatness  of  Glasgow 
is  due,  and  which  promises  by  its  untiring  energy  and 
great  resources  to  bring  Glasgow  at  the  end  of  the 
nineteenth  century  to  the  position  of  a  commercial 
and  manufacturing  community  of  a  million  inhabi- 
tants. It  is  to  the  department  known  as  the  "  Navi- 
gation," or  more  precisely  as  the  "  Clyde  Navigation 
Trust,"  that  I  have  reference.  The  beginnings  of 
Clyde  improvement  under  the  auspices  of  the  town 
council  date  back  to  1750.  The  greatest  shipyards 
of  the  world  now  line  the  banks  of  a  stream  that  was 
readily  fordable  in  those  days ;  and  indeed  it  is  said 
that  there  are  residents  of  Glasgow  who  still  remem- 
ber the  stream  in  that  condition.  The  original  man- 
agement of  the  deepening  projects  by  the  council  was 
subsequently  altered  in  such  a  way  as  to  admit  to  the 
board  of  Clyde-navigation  trustees  certain  represen- 
tatives elected  directly  by  the  shipping  interests  and 
by  the  larger  taxpayers  of  Glasgow.  The  provost 
and  council  are,  however,  ex  officio  the  dominating 
element,  and  the  management  of  the  harbor  must  be 
regarded  as  a  municipal  enterprise,  credit  for  its 
magnificent  success  being  accorded  to  the  munici- 


A  STUDY  OF  GLASGOW 


143 


pality.  The  revenues  of  the  trust  are  derived  chiefly 
from  certain  harbor  charges  known  as  tonnage  dues, 
goods  dues,  and  crane  dues.  Everything  pertaining 
to  the  harbor  is  a  part  of  the  monopoly  of  this  muni- 
cipal board.  The  supply  of  ships  with  water;  the 
service  of  harbor  tramways  ;  the  use  of  graving-docks ; 
the  rentals  of  weighing-scales,  of  cranes,  and  of  vari- 
ous yards  and  offices, —  all  contribute  to  the  revenues. 
A  remarkable  and  interesting  service  of  ferries  and 
harbor  steamers,  operated  directly  by  the  trust,  has 
been  found  both  convenient  for  the  public  and  finan- 
cially profitable.  The  number  of  passengers  trans- 
ported is  about  15,000,000  annually.  Possibly  it  was 
the  city's  success  as  a  common  carrier  on  the  harbor 
that  had  much  to  do  with  the  readiness  of  the  Glas- 
gow public  to  entrust  the  general  tramway  system  to 
direct  municipal  management.  From  all  sources,  the 
annual  revenue  of  the  Clyde  trustees  is  from  $1,750,- 
000  to  $2,000,000.  Much  of  this  sum  goes  to  pay  in- 
terest on  the  large  indebtedness  of  the  trust;  but  the 
revenue  is  ample  enough  to  justify  the  constant  devel- 
opment of  great  projects.  Thus  within  the  past  few 
years  millions  have  been  spent  in  the  construction  of 
new  docks;  and  a  further  general  deepening  of  the 
entire  river,  to  keep  pace  with  the  increasing  draft 
and  size  of  steamships,  is  now  in  progress.  At  the 
present  rate  of  improvement,  it  will  not  be  long  before 
the  accounts  of  the  trust  will  show  that  $100,000,000 
has  been  expended,  since  the  beginning,  in  its  im- 
provement works.  So  courageous  an  investment  has 
deserved  the  great  results  that  have  accrued  from  it. 
Without  it,  Glasgow  would  have  remained  a  small 
inland  town.  It  must  always  stand  as  the  most  strik- 
ing example  in  the  history  of  municipalities  of  a 
greatness  achieved  by  deliberate  purpose  in  the  face 
of  extraordinary  difficulties.  The  Clyde  improvement 


CHAP.  IV. 


Its  monop- 
oly in  the 
harbor. 


The  ferries 

and  harbor 

steamers, 

publicly 

operated. 


Vast  harbor 
improve- 
ments. 


Greatest  of 
all  munici- 
pal achieve- 
ments. 


144  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  iv.  project  was  the  initial  one  in  a  series  of  brave  munici- 
pal undertakings  that  in  my  opinion  render  Glasgow 
the  most  praiseworthy  of  all  modern  cities. 
(  All  municipal  taxation  in  British  cities  takes  the 
( form  of  rates  levied  upon  the  rental  value  of  occupied 
lands  and  buildings.  In  Glasgow  the  rates  are  divi- 
ded between  owners  and  occupiers  in  a  manner  which 
Financial  could  not  be  described  without  entering  into  much 
Glasgow,  detail.  The  general  financial  position  of  the  munici- 
pality is  excellent.  Its  debt  is  not  formidably  large, 
and  most  of  it  is  potentially  covered  by  the  growing 
sinking-funds  of  prosperous  and  productive  depart- 
ments. The  numerous  undertakings  of  the  munici- 
pality, far  from  imposing  heavier  burdens  upon  the 
ratepayers,  promise  in  the  years  to  come  to  yield  an 
aggregate  net  income  of  augmenting  proportions,  to 
the  relief  of  direct  taxation.  Glasgow  has  shown  that 
a  broad,  bold,  and  enlightened  policy  as  regards  all 
things  pertaining  to  the  health,  comfort,  and  advance- 
ment of  the  masses  of  the  citizens  may  be  compatible 
with  sound  economy  and  perfect  solvency. 


CHAPTER  V 
MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES 

SIR  J.  R.  SOMERS  VINE,  a  high  authority  upon  the 
municipalities  of  England,  has  said  of  Manchester 
that  "  by  the  excellence  of  its  local  regime  it  has  come 
to  be  regarded,  and  not  without  good  reason,  as  the 
foremost  example  of  English  modern  municipal  gov- 
ernment." Certainly  the  symmetrical  and  virile  char- 
acter of  its  municipal  institutions  entitles  it  to  a  place 
of  leading  importance  in  any  account  of  the  well-gov- 
erned cities  of  the  world.  Manchester's  progress  as  a 
manufacturing  and  commercial  center  has  been  a  long 
series  of  triumphs.  In  none  of  our  great  American 
cities  have  the  municipal  organization  and  its  appur- 
tenances compared  at  all  favorably  with  the  achieve-  Manchester's 

„  .      ,  ,  .  municipal 

ments  of  industry,  commerce,  and  private  enterprise.  spirit. 
Manchester  presents  the  picture  of  a  populous  com- 
munity created  almost  wholly  by  the  developments  of 
modern  industrialism,  magnifying  its  municipal  inter- 
ests and  concerns,  and  bringing  as  much  wisdom,  en- 
ergy, and  farsightedness  to  the  management  of  the 
affairs  of  the  municipal  corporation  as  its  most  ex- 
perienced citizens  were  bestowing  upon  their  large 
private  undertakings. 

Manchester  has  been  fortunate  in  the  possession  of 
a  strong  municipal  consciousness.  The  corporation 
seems  to  occupy  as  large  a  place  in  the  minds  of  Man- 
chester citizens  as  in  those  of  any  German  city.  Its 

I.— 10  145 


146 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  V. 


Population 
and  area. 


Compared 

with 
Chicago. 


Sal  ford  as  a 

part  of  the 

"Greater 

Manchester." 


Compared 

with 
Brooklyn. 


activity  is  not  hampered  by  any  distrust  of  its  charac- 
ter and  ability,  or  by  any  narrow  theories  as  to  the 
proper  limitation  of  its  functions.  It  is  intrusted 
with  the  care  of  general  local  interests,  and  its  organs 
are  so  devised  and  arranged  that  it  can  adapt  its  opera- 
tions readily  to  changing  needs  and  conditions. 

This  Lancashire  metropolis  is  the  center  of  a  great 
and  dense  population.  Within  a  radius  of  twenty 
miles  from  the  Manchester  town  hall  there  are  dwelling 
more  than  three  million  souls.  But  Manchester  itself 
is  a  compact  municipality,  with  505,000  people  by  the 
census  of  1891,  and  520,000  as  estimated  in  1894.  In 
1890  Manchester  annexed  suburbs,  as  had  also  been 
done  in  1885.  With  these  considerable  enlargements 
of  territory,  the  municipality  includes  12,911  acres,  or 
about  20  square  miles.  As  a  matter  of  comparison,  it 
may  be  remarked  that  Chicago  in  1890  had  twice  the 
population  of  Manchester  with  an  area  of  160  square 
miles.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  borough 
of  Salford,  though  a  distinct  municipality,  is  as  es- 
sentially a  part  of  the  great  industrial  community  of 
Manchester  as  is  any  ward  inside  of  Manchester's  cor- 
porate limits.  Salford  has  a  population  exceeding 
200,000,  and  an  area  of  5171  acres.  If  the  plans  for 
the  union  of  Salford  with  Manchester  should  be  car- 
ried out,  there  would  be  a  community  of  nearly  or 
quite  750,000  people  occupying  somewhat  more  than 
18,000  acres,  or  28  square  miles.  Here  we  have  an 
average  density  four  times  as  great  as  that  of  Chicago. 
But  if  Manchester's  bounds  were  extended  more  gen- 
erously, so  as  to  include  a  population  as  large  as  that 
of  Chicago,  the  average  density  of  the  two  cities  would 
not  perhaps  be  very  different.  Brooklyn  in  1890  had 
a  population  greater  than  that  of  Manchester  and  Sal- 
ford,  housed  in  an  area  somewhat  more  restricted. 
The  character  of  the  housing  accommodation  of  Man- 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES 


147 


Chester  and  Salford  is  somewhat  similar  to  that  of 
Brooklyn,  the  small,  "  self-contained "  house  prevail- 
ing as  against  the  Glasgow,  New  York,  or  Paris  type 
of  tenement-house. 

Previous  to  the  enlargement  of  the  corporate  limits 
in  1890,  Manchester  was  governed  by  a  council  of  76 
members,  and  was  divided  into  seventeen  single  and 
one  double  ward.  The  double  ward  was  a  central 
and  very  populous  one,  not  convenient  to  subdivide, 
and  therefore  accorded  six  instead  of  three  councilors. 
At  present  there  are  twenty-four  single  and  one  double 
ward — equivalent  to  twenty-six  regular  wards.  There 
are  twenty-six  aldermen  and  three  times  as  many  or- 
dinary councilors,  making  a  representation  of  four 
from  each  ward — a  total  governing  body  of  104  men. 
It  is  the  Manchester  plan,  in  selecting  aldermen,  to 
assign  one  to  each  ward.  That  is  to  say,  the  council 
itself  promotes  the  senior  councilor  from  a  given 
ward  to  the  rank  of  alderman,  and  the  ward  elects  an- 
other councilor  to  fill  the  vacancy.  This  method 
amounts,  virtually,  to  giving  the  wards  four  instead 
of  three  members  and  makes  the  aldermanic  distinc- 
tion as  merely  nominal  as  it  could  well  be.  One  hun- 
dred and  four  men  form  a  rather  large  administrative 
body ;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  consider  it  too  large 
for  an  advantageous  management  of  the  various  cor- 
porate affairs  of  so  great  a  city.  These  men  well 
represent  the  responsible  citizenship  of  Manchester, 
and  they  find  strength  and  resources  rather  than  con- 
fusion and  weakness  in  their  numbers. 

The  working  organization  of  the  Manchester  coun- 
cil is  so  excellent  and  methodical  that  it  may  well 
claim  some  of  our  attention.  The  full  body  ordi- 
narily holds  two  meetings  a  month.  The  mayor  pre- 
sides, and  in  his  absence  the  deputy  mayor  takes  the 
chair.  The  mayor  is  almost  invariably  an  alderman, 


CHAP.  V. 


Number  of 
wards. 


Council  of 
104  men. 


Organiza- 
tion Of  till! 

council. 


148  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  v.  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  pay  him  the  compliment 
of  a  reelection  for  a  second  year.  The  deputy  mayor 

Mayor  and  this  year  is  the  alderman  who  served  last  year  as 
inayon  mayor.  There  are  some  sixteen  grand  standing  com- 
mittees of  the  council,  with  an  average  membership 
of  perhaps  twenty,  some  being  larger  and  some  being 
smaller.  Each  alderman  and  councilor  is  assigned 
to  duty  on  three  different  committees.  Such  at  least 
is  the  rule,  though  there  are  a  few  exceptions.  The 

Standing  f 

committees,  mayor  is  a  member  ex  officio  of  every  standing  com- 
mittee, besides  being  chairman  of  a  so-called  "  general 
purposes"  committee  that  meets  at  his  call.  Each 
committee  has  its  chairman  and  deputy  chairman,  and 
it  apportions  its  work  to  a  number  of  subcommittees, 
to  each  of  which  the  chairman  and  deputy  chairman 
belong.  The  committees  meet  more  or  less  frequently 

Frequency  °  •  «  i  -i 

of  meetings,  according  to  the  nature  of  their  duties.  Thus  the 
finance  committee  and  the  watch  (police)  committee 
hold  weekly  meetings,  while  the  cleansing  committee, 
the  gas  committee,  the  waterworks  committee,  and 
several  others  meet  once  in  two  weeks,  and  the  art- 
gallery  committee,  the  baths  and  wash-houses  com- 
mittee, and  others  find  it  sufficient  to  assemble  once 
a  month.  The  subcommittees  meet  as  frequently 
as  occasion  requires.  Careful  synopsized  reports  of 
the  committee  meetings  are  brought  to  the  full  coun- 
cil. The  system  combines  high  specialization  of  over- 
sight with  complete  harmony  and  centrality.  The 
mayor  as  a  member  of  all  committees  is  in  touch  with 
all  departments.  Each  councilor  by  virtue  of  mem- 
bership in  several  committees  has  a  varied  range,  and 
each  great  committee  with  twenty  or  more  men  in- 
cludes some  representative  of  all  or  nearly  all  the  other 
great  committees. 
A  hundred  The  subcommittees,  of  which  there  are  nearly  a 

subcommit-  / 

t«es.       hundred,  give  every  councilor  some  particular  work 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES 


149 


to  do.  The  more  carefully  this  Manchester  system  of 
committees  and  subcommittees  is  studied,  both  in 
theory  and  in  practice,  the  more  worthy  of  admiration 
it  seems.  The  following  list  of  standing  committees, 
arranged  alphabetically,  will  indicate  the  chief  depart- 
ments of  municipal  activity  in  Manchester,  and  the 
mode  of  partition  that  has  been  found  advantageous : 

(1)  art-gallery  committee,  with  subcommittees  on  the 
audit  of  accounts,  on  the  art  building  and  care  of  the 
galleries,  and  on  art,  i.  e.,  purchase  of  pictures,  etc. ; 

(2)  baths  and  wash-houses  committee,  with  subcom- 
mittees on  the  audit  of  accounts  and  on  each  one  of 
eight  important  establishments  in  different  quarters 
of  the  city;  (3)  cleansing  committee,  with  subcom- 
mittees on  audit,  on  estates,  on  works  and  stores,  on 
horses  and  provender,  on  new  districts,  and  on  the 
garbage  works  at  Water  street  and  Holt  Town ;  (4) 
finance  committee,  with  subcommittees  on  audit  and 
charitable  trusts,  and  on  stock  and  bonds;  (5)  gas 
committee,  with  subcommittees  on  audit,  on  each  of 
three  great  gas-works,  on  street  mains  and  lighting, 
and  on  electric  lighting;  (6)  general  purposes  com- 
mittee, with  subcommittees  on  amalgamation  and  on 
parliamentary  matters;  (7)  improvement  and  build- 
ings committee,  with  subcommittees  on  audit,  on  cen- 
tral district,  on  northern  district,  on  southern  district, 
on  purchasing  and  widening  of  streets,  on  building- 
by-laws,  and  on  the  Victoria  Arcade ;  (8)  markets  com- 
mittee, with  subcommittees  on  audit,  on  cattle  plague, 
on  central  markets,  abattoirs  and  slaughter-houses, 
on  Smithfield  Market,  and  a  special  one  on  matters 
regarding  provision  for  dealing  with  foreign  cattle; 
(9)  parks  and  cemeteries  committee,  with  subcommit- 
tees on  audit,  on  Alexandra  Park,  on  Ardwick  Green, 
on  Birch  Fields,  on  Cheetham  Park,  on  open  spaces, 
open-air  baths  and  nurseries,  on  Philips  Park  and 


CHAP.  V. 


Committee 
on  art-gal- 
lery. 


On  baths 

and  wasli- 

houses. 


On 

cleansing. 


On  finance. 


On  gas- 
works. 


On  build- 
ings and  im- 
provements. 


On  markets. 


On  parks 
and  ceme- 
teries. 


I.— 10* 


150 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  V. 


On  paving 

and  street 

work. 


On  free 
libraries. 


On  sewage 
disposal. 


On  sanitary 
administra- 
tion. 


On  town 
hall. 


On  police. 


On  water- 
supply. 


On  ship 
canal. 


On  technical 
instruction. 


A  permanent 

but  flexible 

system. 


Cemetery  and  open-air  bath,  on  Queen's  Park,  on 
Queen's  Park  Art  Museum,  on  Southern  Cemetery, 
and  on  music  in  the  parks ;  (10)  paving,  sewering,  and 
highways  committee,  with  subcommittees  on  audit 
and  offices,  on  yards,  and  on  each  of  the  southern, 
northern,  and  central  districts;  (11)  public  free-lib- 
raries committee,  with  subcommittees  on  audit,  on 
reference  library  and  general  purposes,  on  reference- 
library  extension  and  on  the  selection  of  books,  and 
five  subcommittees  on  specified  groups  of  the  fifteen 
neighborhood  branch  libraries ;  (12)  rivers  commit- 
tee, with  subcommittees  on  audit  and  on  the  sewage- 
disposal  scheme;  (13)  sanitary  committee,  with  sub- 
committees on  audit,  office  and  clothing,  on  nuisances, 
on  unhealthy  dwellings,  on  hospitals  and  analyst's 
laboratory,  and  on  the  Shop  Hours  Act,  etc. ;  (14)  town 
hall  committee,  with  subcommittees  on  officers  and 
audit,  on  decorations  and  furnishing,  on  stationery, 
organ,  bells,  and  clocks ;  (15)  watch  committee,  with 
subcommittees  on  audit,  on  clothing  for  the  police, 
firemen,  etc.,  on  weights  and  measures  and  petroleum, 
on  lock-ups,  etc.,  on  fire-brigade  and  theaters,  and 
on  hackney-coaches ;  (16)  waterworks  committee,  with 
subcommittees  on  sale,  supply,  street  mains  and  ap- 
peals, on  audit,  on  the  new  Thirlmere  aqueduct,  and 
on  hydraulic  power.  Besides  these  sixteen,  there  is 
a  large  committee  on  the  Manchester  Ship  Canal, 
under  the  mayor's  chairmanship,  which  includes,  be- 
sides others,  the  chairmen  of  all  the  standing  com- 
mittees, and  there  is  one  on  technical  instruction,  with 
subcommittees  on  the  municipal  technical  school,  on 
the  municipal  school  of  art,  on  audit  and  grants,  and 
on  new  buildings. 

This  arrangement  of  committees  is  by  no  means  an 
unalterable  one,  and  it  can  be  made  as  flexible  as  the 
changing  and  expanding  character  of  municipal  busi- 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES 


151 


ness  could  possibly  require.  But  while  its  details  are 
changeable  on  demand,  its  principles  are  fixed  and 
lasting.  Our  larger  American  cities  have  yielded  so 
habitually  to  the  temptation  to  create  a  separate 
board  or  commission  for  every  new  or  important 
undertaking,  that  they  seem  to  have  lost  all  sense  of 
the  importance  of  a  unified,  central  administration 
that  can  be  held  directly  accountable.  It  is  for  their 
benefit  primarily  that  I  have  thus  recapitulated  the 
specific  committees  of  the  Manchester  council,  to 
which  is  intrusted  the  oversight  of  all  the  branches 
of  administration,  and  which  perform  their  duties  far 
more  efficiently  and  responsibly  than  do  the  detached 
commissions  that  control  the  several  departments  in 
such  a  system  as  New  York's,  for  example. 

The  supervisory  services  of  council  committees  do 
not,  be  it  said,  make  any  the  less  needful  the  employ- 
ment of  a  highly  skilled  and  well-salaried  chief  as  the 
executive  head  of  each  working  department.  Under 
the  town  clerk  there  is  an  elaborate  organization  of 
solicitors  and  staff  employees.  Similar  things  may 
be  said  of  the  City  Treasurer's  Department ;  and  also 
of  the  City  Surveyor's  Department,  with  its  architects 
and  civil  engineers.  The  Police  Department  is  organ- 
ized under  a  chief  constable  who  has  great  authority, 
and  the  Fire  Brigade,  the  Sanitary  Department,  the 
Gas  Department,  the  Markets  Department,  the  Public 
Parks,  etc.,  are  each  under  a  chief  superintendent. 
The  city's  large  staff  of  officials  is  appointed  by  the 
council  on  grounds  of  fitness  and  with  expectation  of 
permanence  on  good  behavior. 

Manchester  has  brought  an  enviable  degree  of  abil- 
ity and  energy  to  the  provision  for  its  citizens  of 
those  common  services  that  are  admittedly  the  func- 
tion of  modern  municipal  corporations.  Besides  the 
maintenance  of  a  suitable  system  of  streets  and  high- 


CHAP.  V. 


Skilled  de- 
partment 
chiefs. 


152  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  v.  ways,  it  is  everywhere  agreed  that  the  supply  of  wa- 
ter and  the  disposition  of  sewage  and  waste  material 
pertain  to  the  business  of  a  municipal  government. 
Manchester  is  disadvantageously  situated  as  respects 
an  easy  and  natural  solution  either  of  the  water  prob- 

water-sup-    lem.  or  of  the  drainage  problem.     But  splendid  re- 

plyofamil-  .  «,  x 

lion  people,  sources  have  risen  superior  to  all  difficulties.  A 
private  company  formerly  supplied  Manchester  with 
water,  from  works  in  the  adjacent  hilly  country,  at 
Longdendale,  some  eighteen  miles  distant.  In  the 
year  1847  the  city  purchased  the  plant,  and  it  has 
been  greatly  developed  since  that  time.  There  are 
now  thirty  square  miles  (19,300  acres)  of  drainage 
ground,  supplying  sixteen  reservoirs  at  Longdendale 
which  have  an  aggregate  area  of  854  acres  and  a  stor- 
age capacity  of  nearly  6,000,000,000  gallons.  This 
system  has  been  delivering  about  25,000,000  gallons 
per  day  and  supplying  a  million  people  in  Manchester, 
in  Salford,  and  in  several  adjacent  districts  which  buy 
water  from  the  Manchester  corporation. 

It  was  long  ago  perceived  that  the  Longdendale 
supply  could  not  suffice  for  the  future  Manchester, 
and  much  thought  and  inquiry  was  bestowed  upon 
the  question  whence  to  derive  a  large  additional  quan- 
tity of  pure  water.  Finally  it  was  decided  that  the 

Lake  Thiri-  f amous  "  Lake  Country  "  in  Cumberland  afforded  the 
'quired?  best  available  supply,  and  by  parliamentary  action  in 
1879  Lake  Thirlmere  became  the  property  of  the  Man- 
chester corporation.  This  sheet  is  very  small,  but  its 
drainage  basin  is  of  considerable  area,  and  the  rainfall 
of  the  district  is  extraordinary,  varying  from  52  to 
137  inches  per  annum.  It  was  decided  to  raise  the 
lake  fifty  feet  above  its  natural  level,  and  thus  to 
double  its  area  and  to  increase  its  capacity  to  more 
than  8,000,000,000  gallons,  making  possible  a  dis- 
charge of  fully  50,000,000  gallons  per  day.  The  aque- 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES  153 

duct  from  Manchester  to  Thirlmere  will  exceed  nine-     CHAP.  v. 
ty-five  miles  in  length,  and  the  new  works  were  begun 

*  An  aque- 

in  1890.    They  have  been  pushed  rapidly,  and  will  duct  ninety- 

J  .        ,         .  five  miles 

soon  be  ready  for  use.  The  corporation  has  invested  long. 
$16,000,000  or  more  in  the  Longdendale  works,  which 
it  has  not  ceased  to  develop,  and  the  estimated  cost 
of  the  Thirlmere  works  and  aqueduct  is  $17,000,000. 
Water  rates  are  so  adjusted  as  to  make  the  depart- 
ment self -sustaining,  besides  providing  for  all  sink- 
ing-fund requirements.  Manchester  rates  are  much 
higher  than  those  of  Glasgow,  the  Scotch  city  being 
by  far  the  most  satisfactorily  supplied  with  water  of 
all  the  large  British  towns.  But  its  rates  are  practi- 
cally the  same  as  Birmingham's,  and  less  than  those 
of  Liverpool.  Under  seriously  difficult  conditions,  the 
Manchester  authorities  have  found  an  admirable  set- 
tlement of  the  water  question. 

The  drainage  question  has  been  an  equally  difficult 
one.  Manchester  is  so  surrounded  by  populous  towns 
that  its  drainage  into  the  small  river  Irwell  had  long 
been  extremely  objectionable,  while  sewage-farms  in 
that  particular  district  were  thought  to  be  out  of  the 
question.  At  length,  when  the  work  on  the  ship 
canal  made  the  further  use  of  the  river  as  a  trunk 
sewer  an  impossibility,  science  had  gone  so  far  in  suc- 
cessful experiments  with  sewage  purification  as  to 
point  out  a  prompt  remedy  for  conditions  that  were 
growing  intolerable.  Authority  to  borrow  $2,500,000 
was  secured,  and  in  1891  a  large  beginning  was  made 
toward  a  system  of  precipitation  and  filtration  works, 
similar  in  some  respects  to  the  still  more  recent  Glas- 
gow works  that  I  have  already  described. 

Manchester  had  long  before  this  met  the  problem    collection 
of  garbage  disposal  more  successfully  than  any  other 
city  in  the  world.     The  lack  of  proper  means  for  the 
disposal  of  sewage  had  necessitated  a  very  general 


154 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  V. 


Utilization 
of  refuse. 


The  oldest 
of  all  muni- 


supplies. 


use  of  a  system  of  "pail-closets"  for  night-soil,  of 
which  there  were  recently  not  far  from  70,000  in  use 
in  Manchester.  The  contents  of  these  closets  have  for 
years  been  collected  by  the  covered  vans  of  the  Sani- 
tary Department  once,  twice,  or  even  oftener  every 
week,  at  the  same  time  that  they  collect  garbage, 
ashes,  and  kitchen  refuse  in  general,  from  the  domes- 
tic ash-bins.  The  city  owns  several  hundred  thousand 
great  sheet-iron  pails,  which  the  teamsters  of  the  Sani- 
tary Department  cover  with  rubber-rimmed  lids  when 
they  are  removed  and  replaced  by  empty  pails.  The 
contents  of  these  pails  go  into  enormous  closed  evapo- 
rators at  the  "  Works,"  and  come  out  as  a  dry  powder 
which,  mixed  with  a  percentage  of  burned  bones  and 
perhaps  with  a  portion  of  the  ashes  and  street-sweep- 
ings that  are  brought  to  the  same  establishment,  is 
sold  as  a  fertilizer  and  brings  a  good  price.  The 
garbage  is  consumed  in  furnaces.  From  some  of  the 
collected  refuse  the  city  makes  a  commercial  quality 
of  mortar,  and  from  slaughter-house  refuse  it  makes 
carbolic  soap.  It  has  for  some  time  also  employed 
the  plan  of  buying  low  ground  near  the  city  and 
gradually  filling  it  with  the  non-combustible  refuse 
for  which  some  dumping-place  must  be  found,  thus 
making  good  building-land  which  it  subsequently 
sells.  The  adoption  of  a  sewage-purification  system 
will  naturally  lead  to  the  general  use  of  water-closets 
in  place  of  pail-closets;  but  the  great  "Sanitary 
Works  "  of  Manchester  will  not  become  obsolete,  and 
they  will  remain  a  credit  to  the  city,  and  an  example 
to  other  places  that  would  learn  how  to  dispose  of  the 
garbage  and  miscellaneous  refuse  of  a  populous  com- 
munity. 

Perhaps  no  other  city  can  point  to  so  long  an  ex- 
perience as  Manchester's  in  the  public  operation  of 
gas-works.  This  business  has  never  been  in  private 


MANCHESTEE'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES  155 

hands,  but  was  begun  by  the  local  authorities  in  1807,  CHAP.  v. 
in  the  very  early  days  of  the  introduction  of  gas  as  an 
illuminant.  The  municipal  gas  manufacture  and  sale 
has  grown  to  enormous  proportions,  many  neighbor- 
ing townships  being  Manchester's  customers  for  gas 
as  well  as  for  water.  An  area  more  than  twice  as 
great  as  the  city  itself  is  supplied  with  gas  from  the 
municipal  retorts.  The  daily  consumption  in  1894 
varied  from  5,000,000  cubic  feet  a  day  in  summer  to 
22,500,000  in  winter.  The  ordinary  price  is  2s.  6d. 
(60  cents)  per  thousand  feet.  More  than  81,000  private 
consumers  and  more  than  15,000  public  lamps  are  sup- 
plied. For  the  last  year's  operation  of  which  accounts 
are  at  hand,  the  gas-works,  besides  furnishing  public 
illumination  at  actual  cost  and  the  private  supply  at 
a  moderate  price,  earned  above  all  expenses  (renewal  success  of 

r          7  r    ,  v  the  enter- 

funds  being  reckoned  as  current  expenditures)  a  clear       prise. 

sum  of  more  than  $500,000,  of  which  nearly  $200,000 
was  applied  to  interest  and  sinking-fund  payments 
on  account  of  the  capital  investment,  and  more  than 
$300,000  was  paid  over  to  the  general  city  treasury  as 
net  profits.  In  1893  Manchester  entered  upon  a  plan 
of  great  enlargement  and  improvement  of  its  gas- 
plants,  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  years  it  is  expected 
that  several  million  dollars  will  be  thus  expended. 

The  Manchester  gas  committee,  like  that  of  Glas- 
gow and  some  other  British  cities,  is  doing  all  that  it 
can  to  encourage  the  use  of  gas  as  a  fuel,  and  to  that  Gas  as  a  fuel. 
end  it  rents  many  thousands  of  heating  and  cooking 
appliances.     Like  Glasgow  also,  the  municipal  cor- 
poration of  Manchester  has  (in  1893)  constructed  a    Municipal 
great  central  electric-lighting  plant,  and  has  entered      works. 
definitely  upon  the  policy  of  supplying  electricity  for 
public  and  private  illumination  and  eventually  also 
for  power.     It  should  be  remarked  that  one  of  the 
latest  achievements  of  the  waterworks  committee  has 


156 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  V. 

Hydraulic 

and  electric 

power. 


Municipal 
market  sys- 
tem. 


Abattoirs. 


Net 
revenues. 


Municipal 
street  rail- 
ways. 


been  the  construction  at  an  expense  of  about  half  a 
million  dollars  of  a  station  for  the  distribution  of 
hydraulic  power.  Thus  the  Manchester  municipality, 
having  better  facilities  than  any  private  company  could 
have  for  the  economical  operation  of  power  plants 
and  the  distribution  of  power  through  water-mains 
or  wires,  has  assumed  that  function  both  for  the 
benefit  of  the  industrial  community  and  also  for  the 
sake  of  profits  to  the  public  treasury. 

Some  fifty  years  ago  Manchester  purchased  the 
manorial  rights  under  which  the  local  markets  had 
been  private  property,  and  the  system  has  been  de- 
veloped in  many  directions,  to  the  great  convenience 
and  advantage  of  the  citizens  considered  both  as  con- 
sumers of  food-products  and  also  as  ratepayers. 
There  are  extensive  municipal  abattoirs  connected 
with  the  market  system,  and  the  cleansing  and  food- 
inspection  departments  are  the  better  able  to  serve 
and  protect  the  community  by  reason  of  the  con- 
centration of  the  general  food-supplies  in  public 
markets.  The  rents  and  tolls  of  the  various  market- 
places yield  a  large  revenue,  out  of  which  mainte- 
nance charges  are  paid,  and  full  provision  for  interest 
and  for  yearly  instalments  of  capital  investment  is 
deducted,  after  which  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year  is  paid  into  the  city  income  fund  for  the 
relief  of  the  tax  rate. 

In  1875  Manchester  began  the  construction  of 
street  railways  —  a  policy  that  has  been  continuously 
pursued.  More  than  forty  miles  of  tram-lines  are  the 
property  of  the  corporation,  there  being  also  about 
ten  miles  of  private  lines  within  the  municipal  bounds. 
The  municipal  lines  are  rented  to  an  operating  com- 
pany on  terms  that  pay  the  city  more  than  ten  per 
cent,  upon  its  investment.  Nearly  a  million  dollars 
has  been  expended  in  laying  the  rails,  and  yearly 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES  157 

rentals  of  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  are  CHAP.  v. 
received.  Repairs  and  renewals  are  made  by  the  city 
authorities  and  charged  to  the  operating  companies. 
After  sinking-funds  and  interest  charges  have  been 
duly  considered,  there  remains  a  handsome  net  profit 
for  the  city.  Salford's  corporation  tramways  are  tramiinel 
leased  to  the  same  company.  Both  cities  have  found 
their  tramways  policy  amply  successful  already,  and 
the  prospect  for  increased  revenues  in  the  future  is 
very  bright.  The  code  of  rules  to  which  the  leasing 
companies  are  subject  is  very  minute  and  stringent, 
dealing  with  every  detail  of  operation,  in  the  interest 
of  the  public.  One  clause  in  the  Manchester  leases 
declares  that  "  every  lease  of  the  tramways  shall  imply 
a  condition  of  re-entry  if  the  lessees  do  not  run  carriages 
each  way  every  morning  of  the  week  and  every  even-  Provision  of 
ing  of  the  week  (Sundays,  Christmas  Day,  and  Good 
Friday  always  excepted),  at  such  hours  as  the  Corpora- 
tion think  most  convenient  for  artisans,  mechanics, 
and  daily  laborers,  at  fares  not  exceeding  %d.  per  mile 
(the  lessees,  nevertheless,  not  being  required  to  take 
any  fare  less  than  Id.),  provided  always  that  in  case 
of  any  complaint  to  the  Board  of  Trade  of  the  hours 
so  appointed,  the  said  Board  may  have  power  to  fix 
and  regulate  the  same  from  time  to  time."  This  pro- 
vision, made  as  long  ago  as  twenty  years  (1875),  when 
tramways  were  first  begun  in  Manchester,  illustrates 
well  the  spirit  in  which  the  whole  matter  has  always 
been  regulated.  A  workman's  morning  and  evening 
ride  for  a  penny  is  a  municipal  service  worth  ac- 
complishing. 

It  is  the  unanimous  sentiment  among  the  citizens 
of  Manchester  that  no  private  company  should  be 
allowed  on  any  pretext  to  occupy  with  its  wires,  pipes, 
or  rails  any  portion  of  the  public  thoroughfares.  For 
this  reason,  Manchester  has  made  determined  efforts 


158 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  V. 


Telephone 

service. 


Housing 
conditions. 


Municipal 
cemeteries. 


to  obtain  the  right  to  operate  a  municipal  telephone 
system.  But  the  intention  of  the  national  post-office 
at  an  early  day  to  make  the  telephone  service  a  part 
of  the  postal  administration,  has  stood  in  the  way  of 
Manchester's  preferences. 

In  the  many  branches  of  its  health  administration 
Manchester  is  alert  and  energetic.  Its  housing  ar- 
rangements are  so  different  from  those  of  tenement- 
built  Glasgow,  that  sanitary  inspection  and  the  re- 
moval of  cases  of  infectious  disease  do  not  occupy  so 
imperative  and  so  large  a  place  in  the  municipal  ad- 
ministration. But  these  services  are  duly  provided 
for  and  efficiently  carried  out.  Under  parliamentary 
acts  relating  to  unhealthy  dwellings  the  Manchester 
authorities  are  acting  with  much  vigor,  condemning 
and  demolishing  houses  that  are  beyond  redemption, 
and  requiring  the  approved  reconstruction  of  those 
that  are  not  too  bad  to  be  spared.  As  in  Glasgow, 
very  eminent  medical  and  sanitary  engineering  talent 
is  employed  on  behalf  of  the  municipality,  and  the 
average  conditions  under  which  the  people  of  Man- 
chester live  and  work  are  growing  constantly  more 
wholesome.  The  "  Manchester  Dwellings  Recon- 
struction Scheme  of  1891,"  based  upon  provisions  of 
the  great  public  act  of  1890  relating  to  the  "  Housing 
of  the  Working  Classes,"  is  destined  to  accomplish  a 
wide-spread  reform,  aided  by  the  new  thoroughfares 
that  have  been  required  in  order  to  reach  the  ship 
canal  and  docks,  the  opening  of  which  is  clearing 
away  many  insanitary  dwellings. 

Manchester  has  imitated  the  continental  cities  in 
making  comprehensive  municipal  arrangements  for 
the  burial  of  the  dead.  The  arguments  in  favor  of 
municipal  cemeteries  are,  it  seems  to  me,  well-nigh 
conclusive,  and  with  the  rapid  growth  of  our  cities 
they  become  stronger  every  year.  All  cities  have 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES  159 

found  it  necessary  to  exercise  strict  oversight  in  the  CHAP.  v. 
interest  of  the  general  health  over  the  disposal  of 
human  bodies,  and  the  maintenance  of  public  ceme- 
teries greatly  facilitates  such  supervision.  The  Man- 
chester cemeteries  committee  has  adapted  the  service 
of  its  burial-grounds  to  the  needs  of  the  public  at 
every  point.  The  two  great  cemeteries  are  so  subdi- 
vided as  to  furnish  separate  grounds  for  the  Church 
of  England,  the  dissenting  Protestants,  the  Roman  rangements. 
Catholics,  and  the  Jews.  Prices  are  arranged  upon 
scales  that  make  possible  a  decent  burial,  with  inscrip- 
tion on  stone  over  grave,  at  about  four  dollars  for  adults 
and  three  dollars  for  children,  this  charge  including 
all  cemetery  fees  and  expenses.  The  purchase  prices 
of  "  freehold  graves  "  vary  from  ten  to  thirty  dollars 
—  prices  that  are  very  low,  under  the  circumstances. 
The  committee  furnishes  monuments  and  stone  or  iron 
work  at  reasonable  prices,  and  for  small  annual  fees 
or  moderate  commutation  sums  will  agree  to  maintain 
any  specified  condition  of  turf,  plants,  or  shrubs,  either 
by  the  year  or  in  perpetuity.  The  value  of  this  public 
cemetery  service  to  the  people  of  a  great  community 
like  Manchester  —  although  it  saves  them  great  sums 

„  .      „       ,  , .     6  .  Value  as  a 

of  money  —  is  far  beyond  any  computation  in  money  moral  and 
terms.  It  is  a  moral  and  social  service  that  the  mu-  s°  vTee!er" 
nicipality  owes  to  its  citizens,  and  that  it  is  in  position 
to  perform  incomparably  better  than  any  other  agency. 
There  are,  of  course,  numerous  private  cemeteries  in 
and  about  Manchester;  but  the  inevitable  tendency 
will  be  toward  their  gradual  disuse.  The  municipal 
authorities  find  it  easy  to  administer  the  cemeteries  in 
such  a  way  as  to  make  them  entirely  self-sustaining, 
as  regards  both  original  cost  and  current  expenditure. 
It  is  obvious  that  there  are  advantages  of  practical 
administration  in  the  Manchester  plan  of  bringing  the 
management  of  public  parks  and  cemeteries  under 


160 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 


Public 
parks. 


Municipal 
assembly- 
rooms. 


CHAP.  v.  one  head.  Manchester  has  no  very  large  parks,  the 
Alexandra  of  sixty  acres  being  the  most  extensive, 
while  Queen's,  Philips,  and  Birch  Fields  have  each 
about  thirty  acres.  Besides  these  there  are  nearly 
twenty  small  parks  and  recreation  grounds.  The 
total  area  of  214  acres  of  parks,  though  not  large,  has 
the  advantage  of  being  well  distributed,  easily  acces- 
sible, and  solicitously  managed  for  the  best  results  to 
the  community. 

There  are  several  other  social  services  that  the  Man- 
chester corporation  provides,  with  marked  benefit  to 
the  public.  One  of  these  is  the  maintenance  of  as- 
sembly-rooms in  all  parts  of  the  city  which  are  rented 
for  any  proper  purpose  at  very  reasonable  prices. 
The  chief  architectural  pride  of  the  city  is  its  great 
town  hall,  recently  built  at  a  cost  of  $5,000,000  —  re- 
garded as  the  finest  municipal  building  in  the  British 
Empire,  and  admirably  arranged  for  the  purposes  of 
the  council  and  the  municipal  departments.  Its  large 
hall  is  always  for  rent  for  public  meetings,  concerts, 
and  balls,  and  small  rooms  are  available  for  commit- 
tees or  societies  of  limited  membership.  There  are 
several  older  town  halls  in  other  parts  of  the  city 
which  are  rented  for  social  uses  of  all  kinds,  and 
various  other  buildings  of  municipal  ownership  simi- 
larly available.  This  function  of  the  government  is 
one  that  has  been  assumed  gradually  because  the  city 
owned  buildings,  rather  than  entered  upon  de  novo 
as  a  comprehensive  scheme.  But  its  benefits  are  so 
great  that  it  will  in  the  future  be  extended  rather 

nentPpoiicy.  than  reduced ;  and  it  is  being  carried  out  as  sym- 
metrically, with  regard  to  the  different  quarters  of  the 
town,  as  the  system  of  markets,  or  parks,  or  as  any 
other  general  service. 

It  was  in  or  about  the  year  1880  that  the  Manches- 
ter authorities  resolved  to  establish  a  system  of  public 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES  161 

baths  throughout  the  city,  and  in  the  course  of  a  dec-     CHAP.  v. 
ade  they  had  opened  eight  very  ambitious  and  capa- 
cious establishments  at  a  cost  of  nearly  a  hundred 
thousand  dollars  apiece.     Connected  with  each  bath  Public  baths 

IT  •  J  £    .L-u  ±   -UT   u       andgymna- 

is  a  public  gymnasium,  and  some  of  the  establish-  »ia. 
ments  also  have  assembly-rooms.  The  fees  paid  by 
bathers  are  very  small,  the  policy  of  this  department 
being  to  encourage  the  largest  possible  use  of  the 
institutions  rather  than  to  earn  profits.  As  yet,  the 
baths  fall  considerably  short  of  self-support,  the  cost 
of  maintenance  being  heavy,  especially  in  winter.  But  supporting. 
like  the  parks  and  recreation  grounds,  and  like  the 
public  libraries  and  reading-rooms,  the  baths  are 
deemed  an  agency  of  civilization  that  the  authorities 
ought  to  provide.  Ultimately,  it  is  very  probable  that 
this  department  will  be  developed  to  the  point  of  full 
or  approximate  self-maintenance  without  advancing 
the  low  fees  that  are  collected  from  school-children 
and  the  general  public. 

Hardly  any  other  social  service  performed  by  the 
Manchester  corporation  is  so  widely  appreciated  by 
the  community  as  the  maintenance  of  free  public 
libraries.  Manchester  early  adopted  the  Free  Libraries  libraries. 
Act, — i.  e.j  decided  by  popular  vote  to  open  public 
libraries  and  maintain  them  by  a  yearly  rate  of  one 
penny  in  the  £  sterling  of  assessed  valuation,  in 
accordance  with  a  general  act  of  Parliament.  Since 
1865  Manchester  has  pursued  this  policy,  with  great 
satisfaction.  The  libraries  now  contain  about  250,- 
000  volumes,  of  which  100,000  or  more  are  kept  in 
a  central  reference-library  building  where  they  are 
accessible  to  everybody  from  early  in  the  morning  branches 
until  10  o'clock  at  night.  There  are  also  some  fifteen  an  rooms!"5 
branch  libraries  and  reading-rooms,  of  which  nine  are 
extensive,  with  perhaps  15,000  or  20,000  books  each, 
while  half  a  dozen  are  principally  newspaper  and 
i.- u 


162 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  V. 


Large  re- 
sults at 

small  ex- 
pense. 


Useful  to 
working- 
men. 


Technical 
education. 


periodical  reading-rooms,  with  a  few  hundred  books 
to  be  read  on  the  premises.  These  branches  are  much 
frequented  in  the  evening  by  working-men,  being 
kept  open  until  10  o'clock.  Connected  with  each  one 
there  is  a  separate  boys'  room  open  from  6  to  9  P.  M. 
The  total  number  of  books  issued  each  year  approaches 
2,000,000.  The  municipal  investment  on  account  of 
libraries  has  been  a  million  dollars ;  but  the  sinking- 
fund  accumulations  are  now  equal  to  three  quarters 
of  that  amount,  so  that  annual  charges  for  interest 
and  liquidation  are  light.  Eighty  thousand  dollars  a 
year  suffices  for  all  such  charges,  as  well  as  for  pur- 
chase of  new  books  and  running  expenses  of  the  entire 
system.  Thus  for  about  fifteen  cents  per  capita  per 
annum,  the  people  of  Manchester  are  supplied  with 
what  is  perhaps  the  most  efficient  and  popular  system 
of  free  libraries  and  reading-rooms  to  be  found  in  any 
city  of  the  world.  In  the  single  item  of  the  access 
to  "  want "  advertisements  that  the  supply  of  British 
newspapers  in  the  numerous  reading-rooms  gives  to 
working-men,  the  cost  of  the  whole  system  is  saved 
to  the  wage-earning  classes,  the  reading-rooms  thus 
serving  the  purpose  of  intelligence  and  employment 
bureaus,  and  helping  in  the  prompt  distribution  of 
labor  to  the  points  where  it  is  demanded  through  a 
region  thick-studded  with  manufacturing  towns. 

Manchester  has  fallen  into  line  with  all  the  leading 
industrial  centers  of  Europe  in  recognizing  the  ad- 
vantage of  promoting  under  municipal  auspices  those 
branches  of  special  and  technical  education  that  have 
bearing  upon  the  principal  local  trades.  The  general 
provision  of  elementary  instruction  is  left  with  the 
school-board.  But  the  municipal  council  concerns 
itself  seriously  with  the  task  of  helping  working- 
men's  sons  to  attain  special  skill  in  the  crafts  and 
industries  to  which  the  town  owes  its  prosperity. 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES 


163 


Formerly  the  chief  technical  schools  were  under  pri-  CHAP.  v. 
vate  auspices ;  but  they  have  been  made  over  to  the 
city  authorities,  and  about  $100,000  a  year  is  expended 
in  their  conduct,  while  the  city's  capital  property  of 
this  character  is  worth  nearly  $1,000,000.  The  Man- 
chester Municipal  Technical  Schools  include  a  great 
spinning  and  weaving  school  in  which  everything 
pertaining  to  those  industries  is  taught  in  such  a 

3  Adapted  to 

manner  as  to  abet  at  all  points  the  maintenance  of  textile  ami 
Manchester's  supremacy  in  textile  industries ;  a  school  industries. 
of  art  and  design ;  and  several  important  schools  of 
mechanical  arts,  engineering,  and  practical  trades. 
The  fees  are  low,  and  there  are  many  free  scholar- 
ships which  are  awarded  on  merit.  The  attendance 
is  large,  and  the  system  supplements  in  a  highly 
satisfactory  manner  the  well-administered  elementary 
schools,  which  do  not  retain  the  average  lad  beyond 
his  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  year.  The  technical  even- 
ing classes  are  well  attended  by  apprentices  whose 
day  hours  are  occupied.  The  technical  schools  pro- 
vide instruction  in  literary  and  commercial  subjects, 
elementary  science,  drawing  and  designing,  bookkeep- 
ing, type- writing,  shorthand,  and  modern  languages,  as 
well  as  in  engineering  subjects,  mathematics,  physics 
and  practical  electricity,  applied  chemistry,  wood- 
working, metallurgy,  all  building  trades,  sanitary 
engineering  and  plumbing,  bleaching  and  dyeing  as 
well  as  spinning  and  weaving,  and  numerous  other 
subjects  and  trades.  Dressmaking,  millinery,  and  do- 
mestic pursuits  are  also  taught  to  young  women. 

The  municipal  council  has  (in  1894)  constructed  the 
finest  technical  school  building  in  Great  Britain.  In 
1891  a  committee  of  the  council  visited  German  and 
Swiss  technical  schools,  and  reported  the  dangerous 
inferiority  of  Manchester's  facilities.  A  revolution  has 
been  accomplished  since  the  committee  raised  its  note 


New  build- 
ing. 


164  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  v.  of  alarm.  What  English  manufacturing  centers  have 
learned  from  the  Continent,  those  of  America  must 
learn  from  England.  This  technical-instruction  com- 
mittee, which  proceeded  to  reorganize  the  municipal 
work  of  Manchester  in  their  department,  made  the 
following  declaration: 


Objects  of        "^e  principa1  object  of  the  municipal  technical  school  is  to 

the  school,     provide  instruction  in  the  principles  of  those  sciences  which  bear 

directly  or  indirectly  upon  our  trades  and  industries;   and  to 

show,  by  experimental  work,  how  these  principles  may  be  ap- 

plied to  their  advancement. 

The  aim  of  the  school  is  distinct  from  that  of  the  University 
colleges,  inasmuch  as  it  is  designed  +o  teach  science  solely  with 
a  view  to  its  industrial  and  commercial  applications,  and  not  for 
the  purpose  of  educating  professional  scientific  men.  It,  how- 
ever, offers  to  students  of  the  university  colleges  the  opportu- 
nity of  technical  instruction  in  the  industrial  application  of 
certain  branches  of  science. 

The  technical  school  requires  that  all  its  day  students  must 
possess  on  entrance  a  sound  general  education,  and  it  must 
therefore  look  for  its  supply  of  suitably  prepared  students  to  the 
grammar  schools  and  other  secondary  schools,  and  to  the  higher 
grade  elementary  schools. 

The  school  also  provides  evening  lectures  and  laboratory 
and  workshop  practice  for  apprentices,  journeymen,  and  fore- 
men, in  the  scientific  principles  underlying  their  respective 
trades  and  industries,  and  especially  aims  to  bring  to  their 
knowledge  newly-discovered  processes  and  methods  for  the  pur- 
pose of  improving  any  special  trade,  or  of  introducing  new 
branches  of  industry. 

But  municipal  encouragement  of  practical  instruc- 

tion does  not  stop  in  Manchester  with  the  mainte- 

nance of  this  system  of  advanced  technical  and  art 

schools.    From  the  Technical  Instruction  Exchequer 

subsidiesfor  Account  the  municipal  council  makes  various  annual 

sanction."    grants,  aggregating  perhaps  $30,000,  as  subsidies  and 

tokens  of  interest  and  good  will,  to  other  local  schools 

that  are  carrying  on  some  work  in  technical  science, 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES 


165 


manual  training,  or  practical  trades  instruction.  At  CHAP.  v. 
least  half  of  this  amount  goes  to  the  Manchester 
School  Board,  and  $5000  is  contributed  to  Owens  Col- 
lege in  promotion  of  its  scientific  work.  Small  grants 
also  are  made  to  special  schools  and  societies :  as,  for 
example,  $600  to  the  Manchester  and  Salford  Practi- 
cal and  Recreative  Evening  Classes  Committee,  $750 
to  the  School  of  Domestic  Economy,  $250  to  the  Chris- 
tian Arts  and  Crafts  School,  $1250  to  the  Manchester 
Grammar  School,  $1500  to  the  Lower  Mosley  Street 
School's  Evening  Classes,  $500  to  the  Union  of  Lan- 
cashire and  Cheshire  Institute,  and  $250  to  the  Catho- 
lic Collegiate  School.  The  subsidies  are  allowed  upon 
the  quality  and  extent  of  the  work  these  and  other 
aided  institutions  are  doing  in  the  field  for  whose 
cultivation  the  Municipal  Technical  Instruction  Ex- 
chequer Account  was  opened.  The  policy  may  be 
explained  to  be  that  of  securing  the  largest  possible 
amount  of  technical  teaching  for  the  money  expend- 
ed, this  end  being  furthered  by  subsidies  to  private 
schools,  and  by  free  scholarships,  as  well  as  by  main- 
tenance of  municipal  institutions. 

The  municipal  art-gallery  is  eminently  creditable 
to  the  people  of  Manchester,  and  is  highly  appreciated 
as  an  educational  adjunct.  The  art  committee  of  the 
council  holds  semi-annual  exhibitions,  with  the  very 
active  cooperation  of  the  best  British  artists.  The 
permanent  collection  is  rapidly  increasing  in  extent 
and  value.  Moreover,  the  Manchester  corporation  in 
various  ways  encourages  musical  culture.  It  provides 
good  music  in  the  parks,  employs  an  organist  who 
gives  frequent  concerts  in  the  great  hall  of  the  muni- 
cipal building,  and  lends  official  patronage  to  a  very 
excellent  local  college  of  music. 

Manchester's  crowning  project  has  been  the  great 
ship  canal,  opened  in  1894  after  ten  years  of  coura- 


The  art-gal- 
lery. 


Municipal 
music. 


I.— 11* 


166 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  V. 


The  ship- 
canal  pro- 
ject. 


Its  cost. 


Municipal 
aid  and  con- 
trol. 


Other  ex- 
amples. 


geous  struggle  against  huge  obstacles.  For  many  dec- 
ades the  idea  of  an  artificial  connection  with  the  sea 
had  been  in  the  minds  of  the  men  of  Manchester,  but 
it  was  not  until  1877  that  it  was  taken  up  with  a 
purpose  to  carry  it  into  execution.  It  began  as  a 
movement  among  public-spirited  men  of  the  general 
Manchester  district,  who  formed  themselves  into  a 
company.  Their  plans  were  heartily  supported  by 
all  the  communities  of  the  Lancashire  region  that  the 
proposed  canal  would  serve.  Several  years  were  re- 
quired to  obtain  the  necessary  parliamentary  author- 
ity, inasmuch  as  the  Liverpool  interests  and  those  of 
several  railway  companies  were  strenuously  opposed 
to  any  plan  that  would  make  Manchester  a  seaport. 
At  first  $25,000,000  was  estimated  as  the  inclusive  cost 
of  the  entire  project;  but  as  the  work  proceeded  it  was 
found  that  $50,000,000  must  be  provided,  and  finally 
the  figures  were  raised  to  $75,000,000.  The  company's 
resources  were  exhausted,  and  the  municipal  corpora- 
tion of  Manchester  came  to  its  relief,  furnishing  the  last 
$25,000,000,  and  securing  control  of  the  enterprise  by 
a  majority  representation  on  the  canal  board.  Eleven 
of  the  twenty-one  directors  of  the  canal  are  appointed 
by  the  Manchester  town  council  from  its  own  mem- 
bership. The  Manchester  municipal  corporation  can 
point  to  numerous  examples  of  town  governments  that 
have  made  dockage,  wharves,  harbor-deepening,  and 
the  general  appurtenances  of  a  seaport  one  of  their 
chief  corporate  functions.  Glasgow  has  long  pur- 
sued this  policy,  with  results  of  the  most  gratifying 
character.  Liverpool's  vast  unified  system  of  docks 
is  vested  in  a  public  board  intimately  related  to  the 
municipal  corporation ;  and  other  seaport  towns,  Brit- 
ish and  Continental,  have  assumed  financial  responsi- 
bilities on  account  of  their  trade  by  water  that  are 
relatively  greater  than  those  of  Manchester's  new  uu- 


MANCHESTER'S  MUNICIPAL  ACTIVITIES  167 

dertaking.  As  a  direct  investment,  it  may  be  many  CHAP.  v. 
years  before  the  ship  canal  will  justify  itself.  But 
Manchester  and  the  surrounding  district  are  finding  vantage! 
the  indirect  results  to  be  of  enormous  value.  Not  a  large 
number  of  first-class  vessels  patronized  the  canal  in 
1894,  although  its  depth,  width,  spacious  locks,  and 
vast  terminal  docks  and  wharves  at  Salford  and  Man- 
chester are  upon  a  scale  that  invites  the  greatest  ocean 
freighters.  But  if  the  ships  are  not  at  first  crowding 
the  canal's  accommodations,  it  is  because  of  great 
changes,  in  Manchester's  favor,  in  the  rates  of  com- 
peting transportation  routes.  Formerly  it  cost  as 
much,  or  more,  to  transfer  a  cargo  of  cotton  at  Liver- 
pool and  deliver  it  by  rail  in  Manchester — a  distance  of 
some  35  miles — as  to  bring  it  from  America  to  Li ver- 

Keduced 

pool.  The  fact  that  these  charges  have  been  greatly  charges  of 
reduced  to  meet  the  canal's  competition  militates  routes. 
against  the  revenues  of  the  canal  company ;  but  none 
the  less  it  benefits  the  industrial  community  to  serve 
which  the  canal  was  constructed.  Several  years, 
doubtless,  will  have  elapsed  before  the  wisdom  of  the 
municipality's  investment  in  the  canal  will  have  ceased 
to  be  a  controverted  question.  But  while  far-sighted- 
ness is  not  a  universal  faculty,  it  happens  that  the 
short-sighted  view  has  not  prevailed  in  Manchester. 
This  magnificent  public  work  will  remain  a  monument 
of  civic  faith  and  energy  for  centuries  after  the  inef- 
fectual opposition  that  delayed  its  construction  has 
been  forgotten.  The  canal,  together  with  the  new 
water-supply  and  other  vigorous  new  projects,  is  pre- 
paring Manchester  for  a  twentieth-century  career  of 
vast  prosperity. 


S( 


CHAPTER  VI 

BIRMINGHAM:   ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND 
EXPANSION 

[0  similar  in  general  scope  are  the  municipal  activi- 
ties of  Manchester  and  Birmingham  that  with 
some  omissions  and  suppressions  it  is  quite  conceiva- 
ble that  an  account  of  the  one  corporation  could  be 
made  to  do  service  with  readers  outside  of  England 
for  an  account  of  the  other.  An  intimate  acquain- 
tance with  the  history  and  the  present  undertakings 
of  the  two  municipalities  of  course  reveals  abundant 
individuality  in  the  life  and  career  of  each ;  but  for 
purposes  of  international  comparison  either  would 
suffice  entirely  as  an  English  type.  A  recent  English 
Birmingham  writer  has  expressed  a  common  opinion  when,  re- 
dpai  Mecca"  marking  that  "  municipal  reformers  look  to  Birming- 
ham as  the  eyes  of  the  faithful  are  turned  to  Mecca/' 
he  further  declares  that  "Birmingham  was  the  first 
to  initiate,  in  a  broad  and  comprehensive  spirit,  the 
new  regime  of  municipal  socialism  on  which  our  hopes 
of  improvement  in  the  condition  of  large  towns  are 
now  so  greatly  dependent,"  and  that  "there,  some 
twenty  years  ago,  municipal  statesmanship  arose  with 
the  brain  to  conceive  and  the  hand  to  execute  enter- 
prises which  were  really  commensurate  with  the  diffi- 
culties and  the  problems  of  a  rapidly  growing  city." 
The  facts  would  hardly  sustain  this  claim  of  priority 
and  preeminence.  It  is  true  that  in  the  decade  fol- 
lowing 1873  the  Birmingham  corporation  evinced  a 

168 


BIEMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION  169 

constructive  and  a  reconstructive  energy  that  has  led    CHAP.  vi. 
to  the  transformation  of  the  town.    But  Glasgow  had 

c  Compared 

already  set  the  example  on  a  larger  scale  for  nearly  with  oias- 
every  one  of  the  series  of  municipal  enterprises  that  Manchester. 
Birmingham  inaugurated,  and  Manchester  had  also 
led  the  way  in  several.  The  outblossoming  of  the 
municipal  spirit  in  Birmingham  has  been  magnifi- 
cent, and  the.  array  of  tangible  results  is  indeed  bril- 
liant. But  the  conscientious  investigator  cannot  well 
admit  that  Birmingham  has  contributed  more  than 
Glasgow  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  how  to  apply 
municipal  remedies  to  the  relief  of  sanitary  and  so- 
cial evils  in  crowded  industrial  towns,  or  that  it  has 
accomplished  as  much  as  Manchester  or  Glasgow  in 
the  municipal  management  of  productive  public  ser- 
vices. It  has,  however,  accomplished  enough  to  give 
it  place  and  rank  with  these  two ;  and  that  should  be 
sufficient  honor. 

There  has  always  been  a  Birmingham,  but  the  town 
was  not  incorporated  until  after  the  reform  acts,  when, 
like  Manchester,  it  obtained  its  charter  in  1838.  There 
were  local  commissions  and  authorities  of  one  char- 
acter or  another,  however,  whose  powers  were  not  at 
first  made  over  to  the  new  municipal  council ;  and  not  fuiiy  estkb- 
bef ore  1851  did  the  corporation  acquire  full  authority  isti. 
over  public  works  and  complete  municipal  jurisdiction 
throughout  its  entire  area.  Even  then  the  municipal 
authorities  were  passive  rather  than  active,  and  con- 
tent to  administer  corporate  affairs  honestly  and  eco- 
nomically without  entering  upon  any  very  bold  or 
innovating  policies. 

It  is  not  easy  to  believe  that  a  city  which  has  at- 
tained such  splendor  of  development  and  such  perfec- 
tion of  administration  could  have  accomplished  it  all    Results  in 
within  the  working  lifetime  of  one  man.     For  the    ^retime.8 
light  they  throw  upon  the  whole  course  of  municipal 


170 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VI. 


Contrasts  of 
fifty  years. 


evolution  in  England  since  1835,  some  remarks  made 
at  the  jubilee  celebration  of  the  Birmingham  corpora- 
tion on  the  last  day  of  October,  1888,  may  well  be 
quoted.  At  a  special  meeting  of  the  town  council  the 
honorary  freedom  of  the  borough  was  bestowed  upon 
Mr.  P.  H.  Muntz,  M.  P.,  who  had  been  active,  fifty 
years  before,  in  the  task  of  procuring  the  charter.  I 
quote  from  the  Birmingham  "  Daily  Post "  of  Novem- 
ber 1,  1888 : 

The  minutes  of  the  previous  meeting  of  the  council  having 
been  confirmed,  the  town  clerk  read  the  resolution  conferring 
on  Mr.  Muntz  the  honorary  freedom  of  the  borough,  a  copy  of 
which  had  been  engrossed  and  illuminated  upon  a  silk  and  vel- 
lum scroll. 

The  mayor,  addressing  Mr.  Muntz,  said  it  was  a  matter  of  con- 
gratulation to  the  members  of  the  town  council  that  they  were 
able  to  welcome  his  presence  on  an  occasion  which  would  form 
an  epoch  in  the  annals  of  Birmingham.  Mr.  Muntz  was  one  of 
the  founders  of  their  municipal  liberty.  It  was  to  him  and  those 
who  were  associated  with  him  that  Birmingham  owed  its  muni- 
cipal self-government ;  and  now,  when  fifty  years  had  elapsed 
since  the  royal  charter  creating  Birmingham  a  borough  was 
signed,  it  was  their  privilege  to  be  able  to  offer  him  personally 
their  thanks  for  heroic  struggles  in  years  gone  by,  for  achieve- 
ments which  would  fill  a  conspicuous  page  in  the  history  of 
Birmingham,  and  for  benefits  which  had  been  the  foundation 
of  the  prosperity  of  Birmingham.  Fifty  years  ago  Birmingham 
had  180,000  inhabitants,  with  property  rated  at  £475,000,  and  a 
burgess-roll  of  6000,  qualified  by  the  £10  rental;  but  to-day 
it  had 450,000  inhabitants,  with  property  assessed  at  £1,772,000, 
and  a  constituency  composed  of  77,000  burgesses,  who  voted 
under  the  qualification  of  household  suffrage.  Fifty  years  ago 
meadows  and  fields  surrounded  Birmingham ;  to-day  a  chain  of 
houses  linked  the  town  with  what  were  once  small  outside  vil- 
lages, and  formed  with  them  practically,  though  not  administra- 
tively, the  greater  Birmingham — perhaps  the  Birmingham  of  the 
future.  There  were  fifty  years  ago  numerous  independent  gov- 
erning bodies,  who  derived  their  power  from  the  unwelcome 
source  of  self-election.  To-day  they  had  a  municipality  freely 
elected  by  the  widest  suffrage,  which  transacted  business  of 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION 


171 


great  magnitude  and  of  the  most  responsible  and  varied  charac- 
ter. The  streets  and  footpaths  were  then,  as  a  celebrated  author 
said,  "painfully  paved,"  imperfectly  watched  and  lighted,  and 
the  cleanliness  of  the  town,  the  culture  of  the  artisan  classes, 
the  health  of  the  town,  were  comparatively  neglected ;  and  the 
disposal  of  the  sewage  was  an  unsolved  problem.  Now  they  had 
streets,  public  buildings,  sewage  works,  works  connected  with 
the  health  department,  baths  and  parks,  free  libraries,  a  mu- 
seum, and  a  host  of  other  matters  which  challenged  compari- 
son with  any  town  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Their  progress  dur- 
ing the  fifty  years  had  been  on  the  whole  gradual  and  steady. 
Occasionally  it  slackened  and  almost  retrograded.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  progressed  with  giant  strides  under  the  influence  of 
men  inspired  by  a  high  standard  of  public  duty,  whose  ability, 
integrity,  and  devotion  enhanced  the  value  of  their  municipal 
work,  and  aroused  the  council  to  great  enterprise.  So  important 
had  been  the  work  of  the  council  that  the  council  became  a 
training-school  for  Parliament ;  for  he  found  that,  including  Mr. 
Muntz,  there  were  eleven  gentlemen  who  had  passed  the  mayoral 
chair,  and,  in  addition,  two  or  three  other  distinguished  mem- 
bers of  the  council,  who  had  occupied,  and  some  of  them  still 
occupied,  a  seat  in  Parliament,  and  he  might  say  with  great  dis- 
tinction too.  It  was  fitting,  therefore,  that  they  should  signalise 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  municipal  life  and  progress  of  the 
town;  and  they  could  not  better  mark  it  than  by  connecting  it 
with  Mr.  Muntz,  who  had  passed  some  of  the  best  years  of  his 
life  in  the  service  of  the  corporation,  who  had  fought  and  won 
for  them  municipal  emancipation.  The  name  of  Muntz  had  been 
closely  allied  with  the  industry  and  prosperity  of  the  town ; 
indeed,  they  allied  it  with  half  a  century  of  municipal  existence. 
What  was  the  freedom  of  the  borough  ?  That  question  was  once 
asked  of  Mr.  Muntz's  former  colleague,  Mr.  Bright,  whom  they 
were  still  proud  to  call  their  representative.  He  answered  it  as 
follows:  "Last  week  one  of  my  acquaintances  asked  me  what 
was  intended  by  the  freedom  of  the  city — whether  there  was  in 
it  that  was  useful  or  valuable,  any  privilege  or  right  that  the 
man  could  care  for.  I  told  him  that,  as  I  understood,  there  was 
nothing  in  it  which  could  be  put  into  the  scales  and  weighed, 
nothing  that  could  be  measured  by  the  rule ;  but  there  was 
something  in  it  much  more  precious,  if  rightly  considered,  than 
silver  or  gold."  Thus,  by  conferring  the  freedom  of  the  borough 
on  Mr.  Muntz  they  expressed  their  thanks  to  him  for  services 
rendered  in  days  gone  by — for  his  active  participation  in  the 


CHAP.  VI. 


Municipal 
improve- 
ments. 


Freedom  of 
the  city. 


172  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  VI.  administration  of  the  town  during  its  infancy,  and  also  for  his 
having  supported  their  administration  later,  when  they  were 
able  to  march  more  progressively  than  they  had  done  at  the  be- 
ginning. The  freedom  also  expressed  the  gratitude  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  their  deep  respect,  their  reverence,  and  their  wishes 
that  many  more  years  were  in  store  for  him,  gladdened  by  the 
knowledge  that  the  good  seed  which  he  had  sown  was  multiplied 
and  increased  a  hundred-fold.  In  conclusion,  his  worship  handed 
the  roll  conferring  the  freedom  of  the  borough  to  Mr.  Muntz, 
with  the  remark  that  an  appropriate  casket  was  in  preparation 
for  it ;  and  he  then  offered  him  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  as 
the  second  honorary  freeman  of  the  borough  of  Birmingham. 

Mr.  Muntz,  having  signed  the  roll,  was  loudly  applauded  on 
rising  to  acknowledge  the  presentation.    He  said  he  accepted 
the  privilege  of  the  freedom  of  the  borough  in  the  same  manner 
and  in  the  same  tone  in  which  it  was  given  by  the  mayor.    He 
scarcely  knew  how  to  find  words  to  thank  them  for  the  honor 
they  had  done  him.     It  was  an  honor  largely  enhanced  by  the 
fact  that  the  council,  as  the  representatives  of  the  ratepayers 
and  burgesses  of  Birmingham,  had  unanimously  agreed  to  con- 
Mr. Muntz's    done  his  offenses — at  all  events  to  approve  his  conduct,  for  the 
retrospec- 
tions.        nearly  sixty  years  he  had  worked  in  the  midst  of  them  in  every 

capacity.  Only  those  who  had  gone  through  the  ordeal  of  apply- 
ing for  the  charter  which  was  the  foundation  of  their  liberties 
and  the  foundation  of  the  present  meeting  could  have  any  idea 
of  the  enormous  labor  that  was  requisite  to  carry  it  through. 
He  remembered  when  he  first  came  to  reside  in  Birmingham — 
then  a  very  young  man — it  seemed  to  him  a  very  strange  fact 
that  in  that  large  and  prosperous  town  the  people  had  nothing 
to  say  in  their  own  government,  that  they  were  a  mere  village 
with  two  or  three  county  magistrates  to  govern  them,  and  with 
the  addition  of  three  or  four  local  bodies — he  forgot  the  exact 
number — who  did  little  bits  of  work  on  their  own  account.  He 
made  enquiries  of  several  people,  and  found  that  at  that  time  it 
could  not  be  altered ;  but  a  year  or  two  afterwards  the  govern- 
ment passed  the  municipal  corporations  bill,  which  included  a 
clause  giving  the  crown  power,  on  application  from  the  rate- 
payers or  burgesses  of  any  town,  to  extend  the  powers  of  a  cor- 
poration to  them.  On  the  passing  of  the  act  he  applied  to  several 
friends  to  take  the  matter  up  and  make  an  application,  but  he 
found  no  one  would  listen  to  him.  It  seemed  as  if  there  was  a 
sort  of  apathy  which  was  to  him  incomprehensible.  He  went 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION 


173 


round  to  one  after  another,  and  at  last  persuaded  his  friend 
William  Seholefield,  who  was  afterwards  their  member,  and 
Clarence  Seholefield  and  some  other  gentlemen  to  sign  a  requi- 
sition to  about  a  hundred  of  the  principal  people  in  Birming- 
ham to  meet  at  the  public  office  and  to  decide  whether  they 
would  apply  for  a  corporation  or  not.  At  that  meeting  it  was 
decided  that  they  should  apply.  He  need  not  go  into  the  details 
of  all  the  troubles  they  had  to  get  the  charter  of  incorporation 
which  was  signed  that  very  day  fifty  years  ago,  for  it  was  then 
that  their  difficulties  really  began.  They  had  to  encounter  an 
opposition  the  virulence  of  which  was  extraordinary.  There 
was  a  very  large  and  influential  body  who  decided  that  they 
would  not  have  the  incorporation  of  Birmingham.  He  remem- 
bered that  a  very  comical  matter  occurred  about  that  time. 
Lord  John  Russell,  who  afterwards  was  the  greatest  enemy  the 
corporation  had,  pronounced  a  decree  that  the  Whig  govern- 
ment would  never  allow  any  further  extension  of  liberty.  Upon 
that  the  men  of  Birmingham  declared  that  Lord  John  and  his 
colleagues  had  lost  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  Birmingham 
— at  which  Lord  John  was  very  much  incensed  —  and  that  no- 
thing short  of  household  suffrage  and  vote  by  ballot  would  satisfy 
them.  When  they  applied  for  the  corporation,  there  came  out  a 
celebrated  placard,  written  in  large  letters,  from  an  association 
well  known  in  those  days  —  "Quack,  quack,  quack!  Household 
suffrage,  vote  by  ballot,  and  corporation  for  Birmingham ! 
Quack,  quack,  quack ! "  That  placard  sounded  very  pretty,  but 
in  spite  of  it,  and  of  all  the  opposition,  they  had  got  household 
suffrage,  vote  by  ballot,  and  a  corporation  for  Birmingham.  All 
that  was  now  consolidated,  but  before  they  obtained  that  con- 
solidation they  were  opposed  by  every  species  of  litigation,  and 
the  government  were  assured  that  if  they  got  the  control  of  the 
police  into  their  hands  it  would  be  the  police  of  the  political 
union,  and  would  only  be  let  loose  to  disturb  the  town.  How- 
ever, with  a  great  deal  of  difficulty  they  got  the  right  to  control 
the  police,  and  after  that  various  improvements ;  and  ultimately, 
in  1851,  they  got  a  consolidation  act  agreed  to  by  all  parties,  which 
placed  the  powers  of  the  various  local  bodies  in  the  hands  of  the 
council.  That  was  the  end  of  their  long  labor,  which  he  thought 
had  lasted  from  1836  to  1851.  That  was  a  long  time,  and  there 
certainly  was  no  end  of  trouble,  but  he  always  said  to  his  friends, 
"  Remember  the  old  Chinese  proverb  '  Patience  and  persever- 
ance make  mulberry  leaves  into  satin,' "  and  they  worked  pa- 
tiently and  determined  not  to  rest  until  they  got  all  they  claimed. 


CHAP.  VI. 


Obtaining 
the  charter. 


Through 
great  tribu- 
lations. 


174 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


The  Bir- 
mingham of 
1871. 


CHAP.  vi.  Popular  self-government  in  Birmingham  by  means 
of  municipal  institutions  had  indeed  a  difficult  and 
tedious  ordeal  to  endure  before  the  opposition  to  it 
melted  away.  But  the  ground  was  cleared  in  the 

Concentra-  *  °  .... 

tionofpower  period  that  ended  with  the  act  of  consolidation  in 
cii.  1851,  which  removed  the  independent  boards  and  com- 
missions, vesting  all  their  powers  in  the  town  council, 
and  which  gave  large  new  powers  in  the  direction  of 
sanitary  and  general  improvements  to  the  municipal 
authorities.  The  following  twenty  years  witnessed  a 
gradual  development,  and  was  a  period  of  respectable 
administration.  The  Birmingham  of  1871  was  not  a  town 
that  could  have  attracted  the  stranger,  or  that  could 
have  been  pointed  out  as  a  remarkable  illustration  of 
modern  municipal  enterprise.  But  conditions  were  all 
ripening  for  the  outburst  of  civic  patriotism  and  energy 
that  was  soon  to  effect  so  notable  a  metamorphosis. 

Fortunately,  Birmingham  had  from  the  outset  se- 
cured good  men  as  councilors  and  mayors,  and  the 
time  came  when  a  growing  local  pride,  an  increased 
number  of  wealthy  men  who  were  able  to  retire  from 
active  control  of  great  industries  and  manufactories, 
and  a  revival  of  interest  throughout  the  kingdom  in 
the  sanitary  conditions  of  the  towns,  gave  Birming- 
ham an  exceptionally  influential  body  of  councilors. 
Foremost  among  these  municipal  statesmen  was  Mr. 
Joseph  Chamberlain,  then  in  early  middle  life,  but 
already  possessed  of  a  great  fortune  accumulated  in 
successful  manufacture.  In  November,  1873,  Mr. 
Chamberlain  was  elected  mayor.  He  had  served  for 
several  years  in  the  council,  and  had  gained  a  great 
influence.  He  brought  to  the  mayor's  chair  an  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  Birmingham's  affairs,  a  strong 
ambition  to  accomplish  great  things,  and  a  political 
and  administrative  ability  that  have  since  commanded 
the  world's  recognition. 


Advent  of 
Mr.  Cham- 
berlain. 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION 


175 


Birmingham  at  this  time  was  supplied  with  water 
and  gas  by  private  companies.  Several  unsuccessful 
attempts  to  municipalize  the  water-supply  had  been 
made  in  the  years  previous  to  Mr.  Chamberlain's  may- 
oralty. He  was  determined  to  bring  both  these  agen- 
cies under  the  direct  management  of  the  council,  and 
circumstances  made  it  the  better  diplomacy  to  begin 
with  the  gas-works.  Two  competing  companies  were 
supplying  the  citizens  of  Birmingham  and  lighting  the 
streets.  Mr.  Chamberlain  undertook  private  negoti- 
ations, and  found  that  it  would  be  possible  to  induce 
these  companies  to  sell  out  their  works  and  business 
on  terms  that  seemed  to  him  reasonable.  He  then 
presented  the  subject  to  the  council,  making  an  elabo- 
rate argument  in  favor  of  his  proposed  policy,  particu- 
larly from  the  financial  point  of  view.  He  pointed  out 
the  growing  need  of  municipal  revenues  for  objects 
not  directly  remunerative,  and  held  that  the  munici- 
pal management  of  the  gas-supply  would  yield  large 
net  profits  with  which  sanitary  and  educational  ex- 
penses could  be  met.  He  expressed  confidence  in  the 
business  ability  of  the  council,  and  enumerated  reasons 
why  the  municipality  could  manufacture  and  sell  gas 
more  economically  than  the  private  companies.  No 
phase  of  the  subject  was  neglected  in  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain's comprehensive  presentation.  The  council  was 
so  completely  convinced  that  a  resolution  favoring  the 
purchase  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  fifty-four  to  two. 
"When  a  few  months  later  it  was  voted  to  ratify  the 
purchase,  there  was  only  one  opposing  vote.  A  large 
price  was  paid, —  some  $10,000,000, —  but  the  bargain 
has  proved  very  profitable.  The  first  year's  profits 
were  about  $170,000,  and  they  have  steadily  advanced 
until  they  are  twice  that  amount.  Yet  it  has  been 
found  possible  since  1875  to  reduce  the  price  to  con- 
sumers from  about  seventy-five  cents  per  thousand  feet 


CHAP.  VI. 


Municipaliz- 
ing the  gas- 
supply. 


Mr.  Cham- 
berlain's 
arguments. 


The  council 
convinced. 


Success  of 
the  policy. 


176 


MUNICIPAL.  GOVERNMENT  IN   GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VI. 


Next,  the 
water-sup- 
ply- 


Doubling 
the  per  cap- 
ita supply. 


The  great 
supply  of 
the  future. 


to  about  fifty  cents.  This  reduction  and  other  favor- 
able arrangements  have  promoted  the  diffusion  of  gas 
among  the  poorer  classes.  The  municipality  in  1889 
conceded  the  eight-hours  day  to  its  employees  (nearly 
2000)  in  the  Q-as  Department,  and  in  other  respects 
there  have  accrued  social  as  well  as  financial  benefits 
from  the  policy  of  municipal  operation. 

Success  in  his  gas  policy  made  it  the  easier  for  Mr. 
Chamberlain  in  the  same  year,  1874,  to  gain  assent 
to  the  proposition  of  a  municipal  water-supply.  The 
arguments  for  public  water  are  obviously  more  irre- 
sistible than  those  for  public  lighting  works.  The 
mayor's  plans  were  approved  unanimously.  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  high  personal  position  in  the  business 
community  aided  in  the  negotiations  with  the  water 
company  as  in  those  with  the  gas-companies.  The 
price  paid  for  the  existing  waterworks  was  about 
$6,750,000.  The  company's  supply  had  been  inade- 
quate, and  a  large  part  of  the  population  had  de- 
pended upon  wells,  many  of  which  were  dangerously 
contaminated.  Mr.  Chamberlain  laid  down  the  prin- 
ciple that  a  municipal  water-department  ought  to  be 
self-sustaining,  but  ought  not  to  earn  surplus  profits. 
He  advocated  the  policy  of  increasing  and  improving 
the  supply  and  of  reducing  the  water  rentals,  rather 
than  that  of  earning  profits  for  the  relief  of  the 
general  ratepayers.  Under  municipal  operation  the 
works  were  extended,  and  the  actual  daily  supply  was 
doubled,  while  the  cost  per  gallon  to  consumers  was 
much  reduced. 

Birmingham  has  now  outgrown  the  old  sources, 
and  municipal  enterprise  has  gone  far  afield  for  the 
great  and  inexhaustible  supply  of  the  future.  What 
the  municipality  bought  twenty  years  ago  was  a  com- 
posite system  of  supply  from  neighboring  streams 
and  deep  wells.  As  the  demands  upon  the  storage 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION  177 

reservoirs  had  increased,  new  wells  were  sunk,  or  CHAP.  vi. 
some  additional  stream  was  brought  into  requisition. 
And  this  mode  of  increase  from  time  to  time  has 
been  pursued  by  the  corporation  until  now.  But  it 
has  reached  a  natural  limit ;  and  it  became  evident 
several  years  ago  that  some  bold  project  for  the  ac- 
quisition of  a  large,  new  source  would  have  to  be 
adopted.  The  uniformly  brilliant  results  that  had 
followed  all  the  large  experiments  of  the  so-called 
"Chamberlain  era"  sufficed  to  give  the  council  and 
the  community  the  courage  to  face  a  still  more 
costly  undertaking.  It  was  found  that  the  most  de-  _ 

*  P  Eighty  miles 

sirable  of  all  possible  sources  of  supply  was  the  Elan  to  the  Eian. 
river  and  its  drainage  basin,  eighty  miles  distant  in 
Wales.  Powers  were  obtained  from  Parliament  to  ac- 
quire control  of  a  great  expanse  of  uninhabited  Welsh 
moorland,  lying  at  a  height  of  from  800  to  2000  or  more 
feet.  Dams  and  reservoirs  in  that  district,  and  eighty 
miles  of  aqueducts,  would  give  Birmingham  a  supply 
good  for  a  hundred  years,  and  for  a  future  popula- 
tion of  several  millions,  and  the  ultimate  cost  of  the 
undertaking  would  approximate  $35,000,000.  The 
present  system  necessitates  a  large  annual  outlay  for 

J  ...  Advantages 

pumping,  while  the  "Welsh  supply"  will  distribute       of  the 

"Welsh  un- 

itself  by  gravity.  This  saving  will  go  far  to  pay  the  dertaking." 
interest  on  the  cost  of  the  new  undertaking ;  and  if 
the  water  rentals  are  for  a  period  of  years  restored 
to  the  schedule  that  existed  in  1875,  the  entire  stu- 
pendous project  can  be  executed  and  made  to  bear 
its  own  financial  burdens,  including  a  sufficient  sink- 
ing-fund, without  drawing  anything  from  the  general 
municipal  treasury.  As  in  Glasgow,  so  in  Birming- 
ham, it  is  argued  that  a  supply  of  soft,  pure  moun- 
tain water  will  save  the  citizens  a  vast  amount  in 
their  soap  bills  and  tea  bills,  besides  conducing  greatly 
to  the  development  of  numerous  lines  of  manufacture. 

I.— 12 


178 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VI. 


Mr.  Cham- 
berlain's 

crowning 
achieve- 
ment. 


Artisans- 


For  example,  they  contend  that  the  soft  water  in 
steam-boilers  will  effect  a  saving  of  thousands  of 
pounds  sterling  every  year  to  the  Birmingham  facto- 
ries. The  new  system  is  to  be  constructed  gradually, 
and  Birmingham  can  easily  sustain  the  financial  charge. 
But  to  return  to  Mr.  Chamberlain's  eventful  years 
in  the  mayor's  chair,  —  for  he  was  twice  reflected,  and 
therefore  served  continuously  for  three  years,  —  there 
remains  to  be  described  his  crowning  achievement  as 
a  municipal  statesman.  It  was  the  boast  of  the  third 
Napoleon  that  he  found  a  Paris  of  brick  and  made  it 
a  Paris  of  marble.  Mr.  Chamberlain's  improvement 
scheme,  which  has  resulted  in  the  transformation  of 
the  central  district  of  Birmingham,  was  not  so  showy 
or  ambitious  as  the  Paris  reconstructions,  but  in  its 
way  it  was  not  less  noteworthy,  and  it  may  claim 
marked  superiority  in  its  freedom  from  financial  scan- 
dals, and  in  the  soundness  and  economy  of  its  business 
methods.  Glasgow  had  made  progress  with  its  cou- 
rageous renovation  of  the  slums,  as  described  in  a 
previous  chapter;  and,  guided  largely  by  Glasgow's 
experience,  Parliament  had  enacted  the  Artisans' 
Dwellings  Act  of  1875.  Under  this  act  it  was  per- 
missible for  the  local  authorities  of  any  large  town 
to  mark  out  an  insanitary  area  for  reconstruction  and 
improvement;  and  upon  approval  of  the  scheme  by 
the  Local  Government  Board,  and  final  parliamentary 
ratification,  the  municipal  council  could  proceed  to 
buy  under  compulsory  powers  at  fair  prices  all  the 
lands  and  buildings  included  in  the  area  of  the 
scheme,  and  could  then  rearrange  streets,  clear  away 
condemned  houses,  and  dispose  of  sites  for  the  con- 
struction of  sanitary  dwellings  on  approved  plans. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  had  taken  a  great  interest  in  the 
passage  of  this  bill  through  Parliament,  and  at  once 
proposed  its  application  to  Birmingham. 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION  179 

Some  street  improvements  in  the  heart  of  the  town  CHAP.  vi. 
had  been  effected  from  year  to  year,  and  the  ingress 
of  railroads,  particularly,  had  broken  through  the 
huddled  masses  of  old  houses  crowded  together  in 
narrow  streets,  lanes,  and  courts.  But  nothing  radi- 
cal had  been  accomplished,  and  the  great  town  of  condition  of 

c  Birmmg- 

Birmingham,  having  by  that  time  nearly  400,000  peo-  ham. 
pie,  had  grown  up  around  a  nucleus  surviving  from 
old  village  days,  unwholesome,  mean,  and  altogether 
disgraceful.  Mr.  Chamberlain  was  not  the  less  mind- 
ful of  the  public  health,  if  he  was  equally  zealous  for 
the  appearance  of  the  town,  and  appreciative  of  the 
opportunity  to  secure  a  handsome  business  street  or 
two,  with  modern  public  buildings  and  mercantile 
edifices.  In  his  admirable  history  of  the  corporation 
of  Birmingham,  Mr.  Bunce  gives  the  following  report 
of  a  part  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  speech  on  July  27, 
1875,  when  he  presented  the  "Improvement  Scheme" 
to  the  council : 

The "Im- 

It  might  run  a  great  street,  as  broad  as  a  Parisian  boulevard,  Pgcheme  "* 
from.  New  street  to  the  Ashton  road ;  it  might  open  up  a  street  outlined, 
such  as  Birmingham  had  not  got,  and  was  almost  stifling  for  the 
want  of — for  all  the  best  streets  were  too  narrow.  The  council 
might  demolish  the  houses  on  each  side  of  the  street,  and  let  or 
sell  the  frontage  land,  and  arrange  for  rebuilding  workmen's 
houses  behind,  taking  the  best  advantage  of  the  sites,  and  build- 
ing them  in  accordance  with  the  latest  sanitary  knowledge,  and 
the  requirements  of  the  medical  officer  of  health.  Having  made 
such  a  scheme  as  that,  the  council  would  have  to  go  to  the  Local 
Government  Board,  and  they  would  institute  an  enquiry,  and 
should  they  approve  of  the  scheme,  they  would  carry  through 
Parliament  a  provisional  order  which  would  have  the  force  of 
law,  so  that  the  council  would  get  the  advantage  of  a  private 
improvement  act,  without  the  responsibility  and  cost,  which 
were  thrown  upon  the  government.  This  act  having  been  ob- 
tained, the  council  would  have  the  power  of  compulsory  pur- 
chase of  the  whole  of  the  property,  without  paying  one  penny 
for  the  compulsory  sale.  This  was  an  important  provision,  for 
the  British  Parliament  had,  for  the  first  time,  recognized  some- 


180  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  VI.  thing  higher  than  property.  They  should  not  have  to  pay  the 
landlords  what  was  termed  solatium;  they  would  be  able  to 
acquire  the  property  at  a  fair  market  price,  without  anything 
added  for  compulsory  purchase.  Having  got  possession  of  the 
property,  the  council  would  proceed  gradually  to  lay  out  the 
streets  and  open  up  the  approaches.  The  council  were  not,  ex- 
cept as  a  last  resort,  to  undertake  any  building  speculation,  but 
were  to  employ  others  to  carry  out  this  work.  Another  im- 
portant facility  was  given  to  the  council  which  they  had  not 
hitherto  enjoyed.  Having  obtained  the  freehold  of  the  land, 
they  were  no  longer  bound  to  sell  what  they  did  not  want  for 
aspects?  their  improvement.  They  might  lease  it  for  years,  and  conse- 
quently secure  for  future  generations  of  ratepayers  the  advan- 
tages hitherto  secured  by  a  few  large  land-owners  in  the  town. 
They  had  a  power,  also,  under  the  act,  to  raise  loans,  and  the 
Treasury  had  power  to  lend  them  the  money  at  3j£  per  cent., 
and  those  loans  were  to  be  repayable  in  a  period  of  fifty  years, 
and  any  deficiency,  if  there  was  any,  as  the  result  of  such 
changes,  would  be  thrown  upon  the  borough  rate,  to  which  the 
ratepayers  proportionately  contributed.  He  did  not  suppose 
that  such  a  scheme  as  he  had  suggested  could  be  carried  out 
without  some  expense  to  the  ratepayers,  but  it  would  not  in- 
volve nearly  so  much  expense  as  the  bit-by-bit  improvements 
which  they  were  making  in  the  town,  and  which  never  repaid  in 
proportion  to  their  cost. 

Several  years  were  required  for  the  preliminaries, 
but  Mr.  Chamberlain's  project  was  adopted  with  spirit 
and  energy,  and  with  results  that  have  thus  far  vindi- 

The  project   cated  most  strikingly  the  sagacity  of  his  predictions. 

as  ca™d  rpne  c^jef  monument  of  the  undertaking  is  "  Corpo- 
ration street,"  Birmingham's  finest  public  thorough- 
fare and  business  avemie,  splendidly  built  up  with 
new  and  solid  structures  that  will  become  the  prop- 
erty of  the  municipality  when  the  seventy-five-year 
ground  leases  expire.  The  area  included  in  the  im- 
provement scheme  was  about  90  acres  in  extent,  and 
was  covered  with  about  4000  houses,  in  which  from 
15,000  to  20,000  people  were  living.  The  mortality 
rate  of  this  district  was  very  high,  in  some  streets 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION 


181 


being  several  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  more  fa- 
vored parts  of  the  city.  The  condemnation  proceedings 
were  tedious  and  delayed,  but  the  city's  estimates  of 
value  were  generally  sustained  by  the  courts,  and  the 
gross  outlay  amounted,  as  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  pre- 
dicted, to  about  $8,000,000.  It  was  not  expected  that, 
after  creating  new  streets  and  rearranging  the  district, 
the  city  could  wholly  recoup  itself  by  sales  or  leases 
of  building  sites.  It  was  anticipated  that  about  one 
third  of  the  expenditure  would  have  to  be  met  put  of 
the  municipal  treasury.  As  revenue  accounts  now 
stand,  the  improvement  scheme  costs  annually  for  in- 
terest, sinking-fund,  and  various  charges  about  $400,- 
000,  and  receives  in  rentals  about  $300,000.  But  the 
rent-roll  will  grow  considerably,  and  the  interest  and 
sinking-fund  charges  will  diminish ;  so  that  within  a 
very  few  years  the  turningpoint  will  have  been  reached, 
and  this  department  of  the  municipal  administration 
will  yield  a  surplus  revenue.  In  fifty  years  from  the 
time  of  the  investment,  the  debt  will  all  have  been 
paid  off,  and  then  the  ground  rents  for  twenty-five 
years,  or  thereabouts,  will  accrue  to  the  municipal 
treasury  as  clear  income.  And  at  the  end  of  that 
period  the  leases  will  fall  in,  and  the  improvements — 
chief  of  which  are  the  palatial  business  houses  that 
line  both  sides  of  Corporation  street  —  will  become 
municipal  property  without  cost  to  the  city  or  com- 
pensation to  the  retiring  lessees.  Then,  as  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain has  said,  Birmingham  will  be  the  richest 
municipal  corporation  in  the  kingdom,  and  it  will  bless 
the  memory  of  the  council  of  1875  that  had  the  fore- 
sight to  make  such  plans. 

In  so  far  as  a  working-class  population  remains  in 
the  area  dealt  with,  there  has  been  a  vast  improve- 
ment in  the  average  health.  The  municipal  authorities 
have  tried  the  experiment  of  building  and  renting  a 


CHAP.  VI. 


Financial 
results. 


Eventual 
corporate 
revenues. 


I.— 12* 


182 


CHAP.  VI. 

Municipal 
model  cot- 
tages. 


Brilliant 
success  of 
improve- 
ment 
scheme. 


Sewage- 
farms. 


Drainage 
Board  of  the 

Tame  and 
Rea  valleys. 


considerable  number  of  model  five-room  cottages.  As 
a  health  measure,  the  improvement  scheme  of  1875 
has  repaid  all  that  it  cost,  while  as  a  project  for  the 
modernization  and  adornment  of  a  commercial  city 
that  possesses  a  due  measure  of  local  pride,  it  has  also 
been  justified.  But  in  the  end,  perhaps,  it  will  have 
attracted  still  greater  attention  as  a  brilliant  financial 
stroke,  and  as  a  demonstration  of  the  rate-saving  pos- 
sibilities that  lie  in  land  municipalization. 

It  was  during  Mr.  Chamberlain's  period  of  munici- 
pal leadership  that  a  fourth  great  project,  the  existing 
drainage  system,  was  given  its  determining  character. 
The  small  river  Tame  is  the  natural  outlet  for  the 
drainage  of  Birmingham  and  the  surrounding  coun- 
try. But  its  further  pollution  with  sewage  had  long 
since  become  intolerable.  The  sewage  committee  of 
the  council  had  made  exhaustive  inquiries,  and  had 
reached  the  conclusion  that  for  Birmingham  the  sew- 
age-farm system  would  offer  the  true  solution. 

In  a  limited  way  the  system  was  begun,  but  practi- 
cal difficulties  prevented  its  large  development  until 
after  Parliament  had  passed  the  Public  Health  Act  of 
1875.  This  act  authorized  the  union  of  contiguous 
municipalities  and  districts  for  the  formation  of  a 
Drainage  Board  with  comprehensive  authority  to  deal 
with  the  sewage  of  a  region  whose  parts  belonged 
naturally  to  the  same  drainage  basin.  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain, as  mayor  of  Birmingham,  presided  in  1875  over 
a  joint  meeting  of  representatives  of  the  towns  and 
rural  districts  pertaining  to  the  valleys  of  the  Tame 
and  Rea.  Birmingham  comprised  most  of  the  popu- 
lation, but  only  about  one  fourth  of  the  area.  Not  to 
dwell  upon  details,  let  it  be  said  that  the  union  was 
duly  formed,  under  a  managing  board  of  twenty-two 
members,  to  which  the  mayors  of  Birmingham  and 
Aston  Manor  belonged  ex  officio,  while  the  other  twenty 


BIEMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION  183 

included  eleven  from  the  Birmingham  council  and  one  CHAP.  vi. 
each  from  nine  outside  districts.  It  was  a  work  of 
great  difficulty  that  lay  before  the  commission,  but  its 
chairman,  Alderman  Avery  of  Birmingham,  gave  years 
to  its  consummation.  By  successive  purchases  a  farm 
of  some  1500  acres,  possessing  all  the  requisites  of 
location,  slope,  and  subsoil,  was  acquired.  Great 
sewer  tunnels,  intercepting  the  street  mains,  carry 
the  foul  liquid  out  to  the  subsidence-tanks  at  Saltley, 
where  treatment  with  lime  assists  the  precipitation  of  irrigation 
solids,  and  the  liquid,  by  irrigation  and  soil  filtration,  tabiished. 
is  at  length  carried  off  through  underground  tiles, 
pure  enough  to  pass  into  the  adjacent  streams,  and 
eventually  into  the  river  Tame,  without  doing  the 
slightest  violence  to  the  spirit  or  the  letter  of  those 
stringent  acts  that  now  forbid  the  pollution  of  Eng- 
lish rivers.  At  first,  the  disposition  of  the  "  sludge  " 
in  the  subsidence-tanks  was  a  hard  problem.  When  solving 
spread  out  over  the  soil,  it  was  so  offensive  that  it  ren-  d?f?cCuittes. 
dered  the  very  name  of  "  sewage-farms  n  odious  in  all 
the  vicinage.  But  after  a  time  it  was  learned  that  the 
sludge  could  be  spaded  into  shallow  trenches,  covered 
with  fresh  soil,  and  thus  gradually  absorbed  as  a  fer- 
tilizer without  causing  any  annoyance  whatsoever  to 
the  neighboring  farmers.  In  fact,  the  Birmingham 
sewage-farm  is  altogether  a  wholesome  and  agreeable 
tract  of  land,  under  high  cultivation,  and  exceedingly 
rich  in  crops.  The  subsoil  is  pure  gravel,  and  consti- 
tutes a  natural  filter-bed.  The  farm  can  be  gradually 
extended  as  the  quantity  of  sewage  increases,  and  the 
system  is  fully  equal  to  any  test  to  which  it  can  ever 
be  subjected. 

The  system  of  intercepting  sewage-tunnels  and  fil- 
tration-farms was  only  one  half  of  the  great  scheme 
for  the  proper  disposal  of  refuse  that  was  adopted  by 
Birmingham  in  the  seventies.  Until  that  system  were 


184 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VI. 


Collection 
of  garbage 
and  refuse. 


Cremation 
system. 


Making  fer- 
tilizers. 


fully  developed,  it  was  obvious  that  the  sewers  should 
be  kept  as  free  as  possible  from  solid  waste.  In  1871, 
with  more  than  73,000  houses  in  the  town,  there  were 
less  than  4000  water-closets.  For  the  most  part  there 
was  in  use  a  most  objectionable  system  of  "  middens." 
The  water-closet  as  a  substitute  not  being  immediately 
feasible  for  lack  of  sewage-disposal  works,  the  so-called 
Rochdale  system  of  closet-pans  and  ash-tubs  was  in- 
troduced on  a  large  scale.  This  system  has  been 
continued,  with  a  high  degree  of  local  approbation. 
Although  there  are  now  more  than  20,000  water- 
closets  in  use  in  Birmingham,  the"  pan-closets  are 
nearly  twice  as  numerous.  The  "pans"  are  heavy 
galvanized  iron  cylinders,  18  inches  in  diameter  and 
15  inches  deep,  and  the  city  owns  a  vast  supply  of 
them.  They  are  easily  removable,  and  once  every 
week,  in  the  night,  the  closed  vans  of  the  Health  De- 
partment remove  them,  substituting  cleansed  cylin- 
ders. Each  house  is  also  supplied  with  a  specially 
designed  ash-tub,  for  kitchen  garbage  and  other  solid 
refuse  as  well  as  ashes ;  and  the  contents  of  these  are 
emptied  into  a  box  attached  to  the  van  that  removes 
the  "  pans."  The  whole  work  is  organized  by  districts 
with  perfect  system.  There  are  several  receiving-sta- 
tions, all  located  on  canal  wharves.  The  coarser  gar- 
bage is  consumed  in  furnaces,  of  which  there  are 
about  fifty  in  operation.  The  fine  contents  of  the 
ash-pits  are  mixed  with  a  portion  of  the  contents  of 
the  closet-pans,  forming  a  fertilizer  that  is  removed 
by  canal-boats  and  sold  to  farmers.  But  most  of  the 
material  from  the  pans  is  made  into  a  dry,  powdered 
fertilizer  by  evaporation  in  special  machines.  The 
heat  derived  from  the  burning  garbage  suffices  to 
work  the  evaporating  machines.  The  "  poudrette " 
fertilizer  is  sold  at  $30  a  ton.  The  residuum  of  the 
incinerated  garbage  is  a  mass  of  "  clinkers,"  useful  for 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION  185 

concrete  or  mortar,  for  road-making,  or  for  filling  low    CHAP.  vi. 

ground.    The  Health  Department  makes  large  use  of 

the  canals  that  radiate  from  Birmingham,  and  owns  A  municipal 

g  Ctlllfll-DOtit/ 

thirty  or  forty  capacious  canal-boats,  which  are  in  service. 
constant  use  for  the  removal  of  fertilizers  and  other 
final  products  of  the  sanitary  works  which  deal  with 
the  cleansings  and  refuse  of  a  great  city.  All  in  all, 
Birmingham  has  evolved  a  most  complete  and  satis- 
factory system  for  the  public  management  of  every 
form  of  waste  material  —  a  system  adapted  in  all  its 
parts  to  the  actual  conditions  of  the  place. 

The  elaborate  reorganization  of  the  Health  Depart-  Reorganized 
ment  of  Birmingham  dates  from  1875.    Besides  the    partment. 
disposal  of  sewage  and  refuse,  the  health  committee 
of  the  council  was  charged  with  the  inspection  of 
houses  and  removal  of  nuisances,  with  maintenance  of 
epidemic  hospitals  and  disinfection  facilities,  and  with 
milk  and  food  inspection.     Dr.  Alfred  Hill,  who  still 
serves  in  that  capacity,  was  appointed  Medical  Officer 
of  Health,  and  a  great  increase  in  the  staff  of  inspectors 
at  once  wrought  a  marvelous  change.   From  20,000  to 
30,000  nuisances  a  year  were  reported  and  abated,  closing  con- 
Within  seven  or  eight  years,  more  than  3000  wells,       wens.6 
used  by  60,000  people,  were  condemned  on  the  ground 
of  serious  sewage  contamination,  and  permanently 
closed.  Domestic  cleanliness  was  enforced,  zymotic  dis- 
eases which  had  prevailed  were  successfully  attacked, 
and  within  a  few  short  years  an  average  yearly  death- 
rate  of  about  twenty-six  per  1000  was  reduced  to  Great  reduc- 

,  ,  ,  ml  .         .        .«     ,     .,  .  .,    „  tionofdeath- 

twenty  or  less.  This  signified  the  saving  of  from  rate. 
2000  to  2500  lives  each  year,  the  prevention  of  scores 
of  thousands  of  cases  of  illness,  a  marked  increase  in 
the  average  longevity,  and  particularly  a  revolution 
in  the  survival  and  health  of  infants  in  the  poorer 
streets.  The  average  for  the  whole  city  does  not  ex- 
press the  measure  of  benefit  reaped  by  the  streets  and 


186 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VI. 


Marvelous 
results  in 
special  dis- 
tricts. 


Parks  and 
open  spaces. 


Cemeteries 
as  in  Man- 
chester. 


districts  most  seriously  concerned.  There  were  local- 
ities where  the  death-rate  had  averaged  year  by  year 
from  sixty  to  eighty  per  1000  inhabitants,  and  where  a 
few  years  of  the  new  sanitary  administration  reduced 
the  rate  to  from  twenty  to  twenty-five.  Birmingham  is 
a  naturally  healthy  place,  and  the  high  death-rate  had 
been  due  to  remediable  conditions.  Twenty  years  of 
reformed  health  arrangements  have  wrought  a  com- 
plete transformation,  and  amount  in  their  aggregate 
results  to  one  of  the  chief  triumphs  of  city  govern- 
ment in  this  generation. 

Birmingham  illustrates  well  the  recentness  of  the 
general  movement  among  commercial  towns,  elsewhere 
as  well  as  in  England,  for  parks  and  recreation  grounds. 
Until  1856  the  town  did  not  possess  a  square  foot  of 
land  devoted  to  such  purposes.  In  that  year  a  ten-acre 
park  was  presented  to  the  corporation,  and  in  the  next 
year  one  of  thirty-one  acres  was  given  by  another 
local  benefactor.  Agitation  for  more  such  grounds 
became  rife,  and  Aston  Park  of  fifty  acres  was  acquired 
in  1864.  It  was  in  1873  that  Miss  Ryland  gave  Can- 
non Hill  Park  of  nearly  sixty  acres,  and  within  the 
next  ten  years  four  or  five  other  smaller  parks  and 
gardens  were  added  to  the  list.  More  recently  there 
have  been  several  other  acquisitions,  so  that  the  parks 
committee  has  in  keeping  some  fourteen  parks  and 
grounds,  with  a  total  extent  of  350  acres.  If  this  area 
is  nothing  very  impressive,  it  should  be  understood 
that  Birmingham's  parks  are  easily  accessible,  well 
distributed,  and  handsomely  maintained  as  true  plea- 
sure gardens  for  the  people. 

In  charge  of  the  same  committee  of  the  council  (the 
parks  and  baths  committee,  which  also  maintains 
cemeteries  somewhat  upon  the  plan  of  those  described 
in  the  foregoing  account  of  Manchester)  are  the  Bir- 
mingham public  baths.  For  some  reason,  the  idea 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION 


187 


of  municipal  baths  obtained  favor  in  England  many 
years  earlier  than  the  period  of  the  public  health  acts 
and  the  more  thorough  sanitary  reforms.  It  was  in 
1844  that  the  "Association  for  Promoting  Cleanliness 
among  the  People"  was  formed  in  London,  and  in 
1846  Parliament  passed  the  Baths  and  Wash-houses 
Act,  under  which  municipal  and  other  local  authorities 
were  permitted  to  establish  public  baths  and  laun- 
dries, at  low  prices,  in  the  interest  of  health  and  de- 
cency. Birmingham  people  were  ardent  in  the  move- 
ment, and  voluntary  association  was  superseded  by 
municipal  action  in  1848,  when  the  council  adopted 
the  baths  act.  It  was  in  1851  that  the  first  establish- 
ment was  completed  and  opened  at  a  cost  of  about 
$120,000.  Its  popularity  was  immediate,  and  it  was 
patronized  by  a  hundred  thousand  bathers  a  year. 
In  1860  a  second  establishment  was  opened,  followed 
by  a  third  one  in  1862.  The  bathers  soon  averaged 
two  hundred  thousand  a  year,  and  gradually  increased 
to  three  hundred  thousand.  In  1863  a  fourth  great 
establishment  was  opened,  and  the  bathers  at  once 
increased  to  four  hundred  thousand.  These  are,  of 
course,  in  perennial  use,  and  artificially  warmed  in 
winter.  But  the  committee  also  provides  open-air 
summer  baths  in  two  or  three  of  the  parks.  The 
school-children  of  Birmingham  have  the  pleasure  and 
benefit  of  splendid  swimming-baths,  the  year  around, 
at  the  price  of  a  halfpenny  for  each  bath.  Citizens 
who  wish  to  pay  for  Turkish  baths  find  them  pro- 
vided at  a  shilling.  It  is  not  attempted  to  make  these 
establishments  fully  self-sustaining.  The  running  ex- 
penses of  the  system  are  more  than  $35,000  a  year, 
and  the  receipts  from  bathers  are  less  than  $30,000. 
The  city,  moreover,  has  interest  to  pay  on  an  invest- 
ment of  $350,000.  But  when  the  benefits  to  school- 
children alone  —  not  to  mention  the  hosts  of  young 


CHAP.  VI. 


Beginnings 

of  public 

baths. 


Birming- 
ham's muni- 
cipal estab- 
lishments. 


Open-air 

summer 

baths. 


Charges,  and 
financial 
status. 


188 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


not  wanted 
by  Birming- 
ham house- 
wives. 


CHAP.  vi.  working  men  and  women  —  are  considered,  the  net 
charge  against  the  rates  is  a  trifling  matter  for  a  rich 
city  of  half  a  million  people. 

The  laundry  feature  of  the  Birmingham  baths  was 
abandoned  some  years  ago,  because  its  limited  patron- 
age proved  that  it  was  not  a  public  necessity.  In 
wash"hou»es  Glasgow  this  auxiliary  has  been  growingly  successful. 
But  the  housing  accommodation  of  the  two  cities  is 
totally  unlike.  The  Glasgow  family  lives  in  a  flatted 
tenement-house,  often  with  only  one  or  two  rooms  at  its 
command,  and  with  no  separate  facilities  for  washing. 
There  are  no  such  buildings  in  Birmingham.  Each 
family  lives  in  a  small  but  separate  house,  and  pro- 
vision is  made  for  washing.  The  public  wash-houses 
of  Birmingham  were  the  result  of  a  theory  rather 
than  the  outcome  of  a  pressing  local  condition,  and 
they  had  to  be  abandoned.  The  experiment  was  not, 
however,  a  costly  one,  inasmuch  as  the  abandoned 
laundry  quarters  were  needed  for  the  extension  of 
bathing  facilities. 

Perhaps  in  no  other  municipal  undertaking  has 
Birmingham  ever  shown  a  finer  enthusiasm  than  in 
the  establishment  and  development  of  the  free-li- 
brary system.  It  was  in  1850  that  Parliament  passed 
the  first  Free  Libraries  Act,  and  in  1855  that  impor- 
tant amendments  made  it  better  available  for  local 
adoption.  The  Birmingham  voters  confirmed  the  ac- 
tion of  the  council,  and  adopted  the  libraries  act  early 
in  1860.  The  act,  in  brief,  authorized  the  levy  of  a 
penny  rate  for  the  creation  and  support  of  free  libra- 
ries and  museums.  At  that  time,  such  a  rate  was 
productive  of  an  income  of  about  $17,500.  The  li- 
braries committee  reported  that  "the  scheme,  as  a 
whole,  should  comprise  a  central  reference-library, 
with  reading-  and  news-rooms,  a  museum  and  gallery 
of  art,  and  four  district  lending-libraries,  with  news- 


The  free 
libraries. 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION 


189 


rooms  attached."  Within  seven  or  eight  years  this 
whole  system  had  been  created,  and  the  number  of 
volumes  in  all  the  libraries  had  reached  fifty  thou- 
sand. The  patronage  was  enormous  from  the  very 
beginning.  In  1872  the  innovation  of  Sunday  open- 
ing was  made,  in  the  face  of  an  opposition  at  first 
strong  and  bitter,  but  afterward  altogether  with- 
drawn. -  A  fire  in  1879  that  destroyed  the  central 
reference  collection  only  served  to  demonstrate  the 
popularity  of  the  institution.  The  citizens  contrib- 
uted large  gifts  of  money,  and  the  restored  library 
soon  exceeded  in  all  respects  that  which  was  de- 
stroyed. The  branch  libraries  have  now  been  in- 
creased in  number,  the  aggregated  volumes  exceed 
200,000,  and  the  yearly  issue  of  books  reaches  1,000,- 
000  or  more,  while  the  patronage  of  the  newspaper 
and  periodical  reading-rooms  has  grown  to  a  remark- 
able total.  The  devotion  of  the  best  citizens  has  been 
shown  in  generous  gifts  of  special  collections ;  and 
the  central  library  has  many  rare  and  distinctive  fea- 
tures that  add  to  its  charm  and  its  value.  The  library 
rate  has  been  increased  somewhat  from  the  original 
penny,  and  the  department  has  an  income  of  about 
$65,000  a  year  for  all  purposes,  including  the  art  mu- 
seum and  gallery. 

The  municipal  art-gallery  began  modestly  as  an 
annex  to  the  central  library.  But  so  many  gifts  have 
been  made  to  it  by  the  public-spirited  citizens  of  the 
town  that  it  has  come  to  assume  both  proportions 
and  importance.  It  is  now  well  housed,  adequately 
maintained,  and  highly  popular.  As  an  outgrowth 
of  this  art  museum,  Birmingham  maintains  a  central 
school  of  art,  with  several  branches,  chiefly  for  night 
pupils  from  the  working-classes ;  and  the  desirability 
of  the  undertaking  has  been  proven  by  the  fact  that 
three  thousand  or  more  pupils  avail  themselves  of  the 


CHAP.  VL 


Sunday 
opening. 


Devotion  of 
the  com- 
munity. 


Municipal 
art-gallery. 


School  of  ap- 
plied art. 


190  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  vi.  opportunity  to  study ;  nearly  all  of  these  pupils  being 
instructed  in  various  applications  of  art  to  the  local 
industries  in  which  they  are  employed. 

Like  Manchester  and  other  progressive  towns,  Bir- 
New  policy  mingham  availed  itself  promptly  of  the  opportunities 
education,  afforded  by  the  Technical  Instruction  Act  of  1889,  as 
supplemented  by  an  act  of  1890  which  makes  availa- 
ble for  the  support  of  technical  education  a  large  part 
of  the  excise  taxes  which  formerly  went  to  the  na- 
tional treasury.  Thus  the  so-called  Exchequer  Con- 
tribution Fund  now  gives  Birmingham  every  year  a 
sum  which,  after  providing  for  police  superannuation, 
etc.,  leaves  from  $30,000  to  $40,000  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  municipal  technical  schools.  The  corpora- 
tion proceeded  at  once  to  open  temporary  schools, 
and  to  make  plans  for  a  great  central  building  to  cost 
$300,000  or  more,  which  is  to  be  opened  before  the 
end  of  1895  as  one  of  the  best-equipped  technical 
schools  in  the  kingdom.  It  need  not  be  added  that 
the  school-board  of  Birmingham,  which  provides 
ample  facilities  for  elementary  instruction,  is  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  municipal  policy  of  practical  edu- 
cation along  lines  that  shall  train  boys  and  girls  to 
places  of  usefulness  and  assured  self-support  in  the 
local  industrial  community. 

I  have  yet  to  refer  to  Birmingham's  policy  as  re- 
spects street  railways.  George  Francis  Train's  fa- 
mous attempts  to  introduce  tramways  in  the  British 
towns  in  1860  did  not  neglect  Birmingham.  Mr. 
Train  was  granted  an  experimental  concession  which 
corpora-  he  failed  to  utilize,  and  in  1861  the  corporation  itself 
obtained  parliamentary  authority  to  build  tramways. 
But  nothing  was  done  until  after  the  General  Tram- 
ways Act  of  1870  was  passed.  At  length  in  1873  the 
council  laid  the  first  line,  at  a  cost  of  $75,000,  and 
leased  it  for  seven  years  to  an  operating  company. 


BIKMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION  191 

From  time  to  time  other  lines  have  been  built  and  CHAP.  vi. 
leased;  but  the  corporation's  limits  included  only 
8400  acres  until  November  9,  1891,  when  they  were 
increased  to  12,365  acres  by  the  annexation  of  sub-  naSow  mu- 
urbs  then  containing  some  50,000  people.  Thus,  bouSL. 
when  the  corporation's  street-railway  system  was 
under  construction,  the  average  distance  from  the 
center  to  the  circumference  of  Birmingham  was  only 
two  miles;  and  twenty-two  miles  of  tram  lines  are  the 
total  extent  of  the  municipal  ownership.  Outside  of 
the  city's  jurisdiction,  the  operating  companies  have 
extended  the  lines  by  a  still  greater  mileage.  In 
the  future,  undoubtedly,  these  extensions  will  be  ac- 
quired by  the  Birmingham  corporation  at  a  fair  valua- 
tion, in  accordance  with  the  methods  prescribed  in  the 
General  Tramways  Act.  The  present  municipal  lines 
are  operated  in  part  by  horse-power  and  in  part  by 
steam,  with  cable  and  electricity  also  introduced  on 
certain  routes.  The  terms  of  rental  are  worthy  of 
mention.  First,  the  leasing  companies  agree  to  pay  e™aSses. 
4  per  cent,  on  the  full  municipal  investment  for  the 
first  fourteen  years  of  the  lease,  and  5  per  cent,  for  the 
remaining  seven  years.  Second,  the  companies  also 
pay  an  annual  sum  which  at  compound  interest  will 
accumulate  a  fund  equal  to  the  whole  capital  outlay 
at  the  end  of  the  twenty-one  years'  lease.  It  is  cal- 
culated and  agreed  that  4  per  cent,  for  fourteen  years 
and  5  per  cent,  for  the  remaining  seven  years  will 
suffice  to  raise  the  full  amount  of  capital.  Meanwhile, 
also,  the  companies  pay  all  current  charges  for  repairs 
and  maintenance  of  the  lines,  upon  receiving  bills 
certified  by  the  city  surveyor.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered that  Birmingham  is  able  to  borrow  at  very  low 
rates ;  and  it  is  clear  that  these  terms  are  profitable 
to  the  municipality.  At  the  end  of  the  twenty-one 
years,  the  earning  value  of  the  franchises  will  have 


192 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VI. 


Favorable 

rules  and 

regulations. 


•Extension 
of  bounda- 
ries desir- 
able. 


Municipal 
market  sys- 
tem. 


Growth  of 
the  debt. 


increased,  and  new  leases  can  be  executed  on  terms 
still  more  advantageous  to  the  city.  But  while  Bir- 
mingham has  thus  protected  the  ratepayers  so  hand- 
somely, it  has  accomplished  even  more  in  the  guarding 
of  the  interests  of  the  traveling  public.  Every  detail 
as  to  rates  of  fare  and  character  of  service  is  pre- 
scribed in  the  by-laws  and  regulations  that  the  com- 
panies have  to  accept.  The  minuteness  of  the  re- 
quirements touching  duties  and  conduct  of  drivers 
and  conductors,  furnishing  and  lighting  of  cars,  and 
so  on,  would  amaze  an  American  community. 

It  is  readily  apparent  that  it  would  have  been  ad- 
vantageous for  Birmingham  to  have  secured  many 
years  ago  a  large  increase  of  territory.  The  munici- 
pal gas-works,  the  drainage  system,  the  water-supply 
and  the  transit  system  already  serve  an  area  much 
greater  than  that  which  is  included  within  the  boun- 
daries as  now  extended.  The  city  should  have  had 
direct  control  over  the  streets  and  house-building  of 
this  suburban  area,  and  should  have  been  in  position 
to  lay  down  for  itself  the  tram-line  extensions. 

Birmingham  at  an  early  day  (1824)  acquired  from 
the  manorial  lord  the  market  rights  which  had  long 
been  held  as  private  sources  of  emolument,  and  there 
has  been  developed  a  series  of  important  public  mar- 
kets, which  aid  in  the  cheap  "approvisionment"  of  the 
city,  and  make  more  feasible  and  certain  the  thorough 
health  inspection  of  food-supplies.  The  markets  yield 
a  considerable  net  revenue. 

In  1872,  just  before  Mr.  Chamberlain  became  mayor, 
Birmingham's  municipal  indebtedness  was  somewhat 
more  than  $2,500,000.  Since  then,  it  has  raised  in 
loans  for  what  may  be  called  investments  of  capital 
about  $45,000,000.  A  portion  of  this  sum  has  been 
repaid,  but  the  debt  still  stands  at  approximately 
$40,000,000.  This  would  be  a  formidable  sum  if  there 


BIRMINGHAM:  ITS  CIVIC  LIFE  AND  EXPANSION  193 

were  little  or  nothing  to  show  for  it,  or  if  it  had  for    CHAP.  vi. 
the  most  part  been  sunk  in  unproductive  expenditures. 
But  the  support  of  this  huge  outlay  has  not  added 
anything  to  the  rates,  which  remain  almost  exactly  . 

*  '  *     Not  a  public, 

what  they  were  in  1873.  Birmingham's  finances  are  burden. 
consolidated  and  admirably  managed,  and  the  average 
interest  rate  on  its  debt  is  a  little  over  three  per  cent. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  had  foreseen  the  necessary  growth 
of  unproductive  expenditures,  and  had  favored  the 
municipal  control  of  productive  monopolies  of  supply 
as  an  offset.  His  forecasts  have  been  justified.  Mu- 
nicipal water,  gas,  tramways,  markets,  etc.,  have,  from 
the  financial  point  of  view,  been  completely  success- 

i  •    •  />  •      •  Successful 

ful.  In  all  the  municipal  financiering,  the  accounts  financiering. 
of  the  several  departments  are  kept  distinct ;  and  it 
is  the  laudable  ambition  of  each  council  committee  to 
make  the  revenues  of  its  particular  department  go  as 
far  as  possible  toward  meeting  the  current  expenses. 
Each  specific  investment  is  provided  with  a  sinking- 
fund  that  must  extinguish  the  debt  within  a  prescribed 
period ;  and  thus  the  great  volume  of  indebtedness  is 
as  easily  and  precisely  managed  as  if  it  were  only  one 
tenth  as  large.  Viewing  the  expenditure  as  a  whole, 
it  has  been  made  more  advantageously  by  far  than  Thecommu- 
any  private  firms  or  companies  could  have  effected  it, 
and  the  community,  as  individuals  and  as  a  corporate 
body,  is  the  richer  at  least  by  two  or  three  dollars  for 
every  dollar  of  the  forty  or  fifty  millions  that  the  cor- 
poration has  dared  to  borrow  and  invest.  -  * 


I.— 13 


CHAPTER  VII 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 


A  period  of 
municipal 
progress. 


Dominant 
motives. 


BEFORE  passing  on  to  a  survey  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  great  English  metropolis,  there  may 
be  some  advantage  in  a  rapid  review  of  the  growing 
municipal  activity  of  the  provincial  towns.  The  ac- 
counts that  I  have  given  of  the  social  progress  under 
municipal  auspices  in  Glasgow,  Manchester,  and  Bir- 
mingham will  suffice  as  representative  sketches  of 
individual  towns,  although  Liverpool,  Leeds,  Notting- 
ham, Sheffield,  Edinburgh,  and  several  other  large 
centers  would  furnish  instructive  pictures  of  recent 
municipal  development.  It  will  be  enough  if  a  re- 
markable period  of  awakening  and  improvement  in 
the  British  towns  can  be  made  the  more  clearly  com- 
prehensible by  a  summary  grouping  of  facts  and 
statistics. 

The  chief  motive  in  all  this  work  of  town  improve- 
ment has  been  the  promotion  of  the  health  and  civili- 
zation of  the  community.  Commercial  considerations 
and  the  sentiments  of  local  pride  have  played  their 
part.  A  wholesome  spirit  of  emulation  in  good  works 
has  come  to  the  aid  of  the  local  leaders  whose  own  mo- 
tives were  of  a  higher  order.  One  town's  enterprise 
in  the  matter  of  a  noble  water-supply  has  powerfully 
stimulated  action  in  other  towns.  An  attractive  sys- 
tem of  libraries  and  reading-rooms  in  A  or  B,  has  had 
a  decisive  effect  upon  C,  D,  E,  and  F.  In  a  review  of 


194 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 


195 


CHAP.  VII. 


Classifica- 
tion of 
functions. 


some  of  the  departments  of  municipal  activity  that 
are  now  most  characteristic  of  the  English  towns, 
there  is  no  need  of  any  attempt  at  a  classification  of 
functions.  There  is  a  limited  usefulness,  sometimes, 
in  .distinguishing  between  monopolistic  services  of 
local  supply,  and  other  services  not  regarded  by  econo- 
mists as  naturally  tending  to  monopoly.  And  for 
financial  purposes  there  are  obvious  advantages  in 
distinguishing  between  the  revenue-earning  or  pro- 
ductive services,  and  those  that  are  supported  wholly 
or  chiefly  out  of  rates  or  taxes.  But  no  such  classifi- 
cation can  ever  serve  a  permanent  end.  At  least  it 
must  yield  to  frequent  revision.  As  to  many  depart- 
ments, the  classification  would  only  register  a  prevail- 
ing policy.  Thus,  water-supply  is  commonly  managed 
as  a  self-sustaining  and  moderately  productive  depart- 
ment, while  drainage  with  sewage-disposal  is  con- 
sidered unproductive.  But  in  point  of  theory  it  would 
be  perfectly  feasible  to  reverse  the  management  of 
these  two  equally  necessary  and  complementary  ser- 
vices, and  to  distribute  water  freely,  charging  the 
expense  against  the  general  treasury,  while  making 
the  disposal  of  sewage  and  other  waste  a  productive 
municipal  monopoly. 


The  large  British  towns  have  had  the  wisdom  to    Question  of 

water-sup- 
perceive  of  late  that  a  good  water-supply  is  the  most       piy. 

imperative  of  all  local  considerations.  They  have 
learned  that  a  public  supply  is  desirable  because  no 
private  company  can  find  it  profitable  to  make  ac- 
count of  the  motives  that  should  govern  the  fixing  of 
a  permanent  system.  I  have  mentioned  in  detail  the 
great  water  undertakings  of  Glasgow,  Manchester, 
and  Birmingham.  These  costly  supplies  of  pure  wa- 
ter will  result  in  a  wonderful  variety  of  indirect  com- 
pensating advantages  to  their  respective  communities, 


196  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  viz.    and,  considered  as  public  investments,  are  unimpeach- 
why  public   ably  sound ;  but  as  private  investments  they  would 

control  is  J  * 

desirable,  have  been  ruinous,  for  the  simple  reason  that  a  pri- 
vate company  could  not  have  turned  indirect  benefits- 
into  cash  dividends.  In  general,  it  is  the  approved 
plan  of  British  towns  to  obtain  soft  and  pure  water 
from  high  sources,  so  that  it  may  be  introduced  and 
distributed  by  gravity.  Pumping  expenses  are  thus 
saved;  and  this  saving  —  as  against  the  cost  of  a  sys- 
tem which  pumps  up  and  artificially  filters  a  contam- 

Highsources    .  A   . 

preferred,  mated  river  water  —  is  enough  to  pay  a  large  part  of 
the  interest  on  the  initial  cost  of  a  mountain  supply 
brought  a  long  distance  by  aqueduct.  Moreover,  the 
advantage  of  the  gravity  system  for  the  Fire  Depart- 
ment and  for  hydraulic-power  works  represents  an- 
other large  annual  saving.  It  is,  therefore,  the  policy 
of  the  British  towns  to  secure  control,  each  for  itself, 
of  some  elevated  and  uninhabited  area  whose  water- 
shed it  can  preempt,  and  whose  extent  gives  assur- 
ance of  a  quantity  of  water  large  enough  for  future 
needs. 

I  have  mentioned  Glasgow's  Loch  Katrine  supply, 
Manchester's  acquisition  of  Lake  Thirlmere,  and  Bir- 
mingham's bold  project  of  a  supply  from  the  Elan  in 
Liverpool's    the  mountains  of  Wales.    Liverpool  has  also  gone  to 
grednct!ue    Wales  for  its  supply,  which  it  derives  from  Lake 
Vyrnwy,  and  conveys  a  distance  of  68  miles  through 
aqueducts.   This  splendid  public  work  was  completed 
in  the  summer  of  1892,  some  $10,000,000  having  been 
Bradford's    expended  upon  it.     Bradford,  one  of  England's  most 
""tem.       progressive  municipalities, —  a  town  of  some  225,000 
inhabitants, —  has  also  gone  far  afield  for  a  safe  and 
permanent  supply  of  water.     It  had  protected  its  ex- 
isting nearer  sources  by  the  purchase  of  large  areas 
of  land  to  guard  against  possible  contamination ;  but 
now  it  has  secured  as  a  heritage  for  future  genera- 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 


197 


tions  (by  terms  of  the  Bradford  Water  Act  of  1890) 
"  the  almost  uninhabited  and  uncultivated  moorlands 
at  the  sources  of  the  river  Nidd  on  the  slopes  of 
Great  Whernside,  distant  40  miles  from  the  town," 
whence  an  unfailing  supply  of  pure  water  will  be 
brought  by  aqueducts.  Cardiff,  the  Severn  seaport 
and  South  Wales  metropolis,  purchased  the  works  of  a 
private  water-company  in  1879  at  a  cost  of  $1,500,000, 
and  since  then  has  spent  $3,000,000  more  upon  a 
scheme  which  brings  the  purest  of  water  from  the 
Taff  Fawr  valley,  distant  32  miles  in  the  hills.  Bol- 
ton,  an  excellent  type  of  the  best  manufacturing 
towns,  with  a  population  approaching  125,000,  brings 
its  admirable  water-supply  from  the  Entwisle  moors, 
which  fortunately  are  only  a  few  miles  distant,  al- 
though the  works  have  cost  about  $4,000,000.  Shef- 
field has  since  1887  purchased  the  waterworks  from 
a  private  company  at  a  cost  of  $7,500,000,  and  is  im- 
proving them.  The  sources  are  some  miles  distant 
and  are  of  a  fortunate  character.  Leeds,  the  great 
Yorkshire  manufacturing  town,  has  an  elaborate  sys- 
tem of  storage  and  filtering  reservoirs  and  pumping- 
works  through  which  it  distributes  the  water  of  the 
river  Washburn ;  and  Hull,  Yorkshire's  seaport,  has  a 
good  public  supply.  Nottingham  and  Leicester,  also 
representative  manufacturing  towns  of  approximately 
200,000  inhabitants  each,  municipalized  both  water 
and  gas  some  twenty  years  ago,  with  good  results. 

The  magnitude  of  municipal  investments  in  water- 
works may  be  illustrated  by  the  statement  that  the 
outstanding  indebtedness  of  English  and  Welsh  local 
authorities  on  account  of  this  one  item  has  reached 
$200,000,000  and  is  nearly  one  fifth  of  the  aggregate 
of  local  debts.  Most  of  this  vast  outlay  has  been  in- 
curred since  1870.  Sinking-funds  are  accruing  to 
meet  maturing  obligations;  and  the  completion  of 


CHAP.  VII. 


Cardiff's 
mountain 
supply. 


The  case  of 
Bolton. 


Sheffield, 
Leeds,  Hull, 
Nottingham, 

Leicester. 


Huge  invest- 
ments in 
waterworks. 


I.— 13* 


198 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  vii.  water  systems  for  the  larger  towns  makes  it  almost 
certain  that  after  the  year  1900  the  annual  cost  of  new 
works  will  be  less  than  the  annual  growth  of  sinking- 
funds,  and  thus  the  net  volume  of  waterworks  in- 
debtedness will  decrease. 


Question  of 

sewers  and 

sewage. 


Drainage- 
works  in- 
vestment. 


Sheffield. 


Salford. 


Oldham  and 
Chorley. 


Leicester. 


Leamington. 


It  is  interesting  to  note  the  fact  that  English  local 
authorities  are  taking  up  the  question  of  sewerage 
and  sewage-disposal  with  such  vigor  that  they  are  now 
spending  more  every  year  in  that  direction  than  upon 
water-supplies,  although  the  aggregate  indebtedness 
for  sewer-works  in  1892  was  only  half  as  great  as  the 
water  debt,  having  reached  just  $100,000,000.  In  a 
recent  year,  $4,000,000  of  borrowed  capital  was  spent 
upon  new  public  waterworks,  and  $5,000,000  upon 
main  drainage-works  and  sewage  treatment.  Such  is 
the  energy  with  which  English  municipalities  take  up 
great  questions  and  deal  with  them  in  the  order  of 
their  importance.  It  will  not  be  necessary  to  cite 
many  instances,  in  addition  to  those  presented  in  the 
three  foregoing  chapters.  Sheffield  is  spending  a 
great  sum  upon  its  Blackburn  Meadows  sewage-pre- 
cipitation works.  Salford,  which  obtains  its  water- 
supply  from  Manchester,  has  carried  into  operation  a 
very  elaborate  scheme  for  the  collection  and  artifi- 
cial purification  of  sewage — an  exceedingly  creditable 
system  for  this  public-spirited  town  of  200,000  people. 
Oldham,  also  in  the  Manchester  district,  a  fine  town 
of  150,000  people,  famous  for  its  weaving  industries, 
is  now  spending  a  million  dollars  upon  works  for  the 
interception  and  treatment  of  sewage.  Chorley,  in 
the  same  neighborhood,  has  a  good  system  of  sewage- 
farms.  Leicester  has  developed  a  sewage-farm  of 
about  1400  acres,  and  is  a  model  corporation  in  its 
sanitary  engineering  system.  Leamington,  in  "War- 
wickshire, furnishes  an  illustration  of  excellent  sani- 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  199 

tary  arrangements  in  a  smaller  town.    It  has  fewer    CHAP.  vn. 
than  30,000  inhabitants,  but  its  water-supply  is  derived 
from  lofty  hills,  and  its  sewage  is  successfully  treated 
by  land  irrigation.     Shakespeare's  town  of  Stratford,     Stratford. 
in  the  same  lovely  Avon  valley,  is  also  a  model  of 
cleanliness,  with  a  good  public  water-supply  and  a 
sewage-farm  of  the  most  modern  character.  The  large 
towns  of  Wolverhampton  and  West  Bromwich  are     hampton 

•IT-IT!  ..,..          ,          ,  and  West 

among  the  English  municipalities  that  have  adopted    Bromwich. 
the  sewage-farm  as  the  true  solution  of  a  difficult 
problem.    The  same  thing  is  true  of  ancient  Canter-  „ 

0  .  Canterbury, 

bury,  of  Tunbridge  Wells,  and  of  Darlington.  Practi-  et  cetera, 
cally  all  the  large  British  towns  have  now  executed 
main  drainage-works  of  a  permanent  character,  and 
it  only  remains  for  those  that  are  still  draining  into 
rivers  or  the  sea  either  to  divert  the  intercepted  sew- 
age to  irrigation  farms,  or  else  to  establish  works  on 
the  Manchester  model  for  artificial  precipitation  and 
cleansing. 

Municipal  gas-works  were  undertaken  by  many  of 
the  English  towns,  at  the  same  time  that  the  water- 
supply  was  municipalized.  The  arguments  in  favor 
of  the  public  control  of  gas-supplies  are  certainly  not 
so  strong  as  those  that  can  be  urged  in  the  case  of 
water.  The  gas  business  rests  upon  a  more  strictly 
commercial  basis,  and  furthermore  it  does  not  involve 
any  of  those  far-reaching  questions  as  to  the  source 
and  nature  of  the  supply  that,  in  most  cases,  make  it 
wise  for  towns  to  manage  their  own  water.  But  if  a 
city  wants  excuses  for  assuming  the  manufacture  and 

.      .  Arguments 

sale  or  gas,  they  are  numerous  enough.    It  is  itself    for  public 
a  large  consumer,  in  street-illumination  and  public       men! 
buildings.     The  distribution  of  gas  requires  the  use 
of  the  public  streets  for  pipes;  and  a  private  com- 
pany's occupation  of  any  part  of  the  streets  is  con- 


200 


MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VII. 


General  use 
of  gas  in 
British 
towns. 


A  boon  to 
the  poor. 


As  a  police 
measure. 


Financial 
considera- 
tions. 


Efficiency  of 
public  man- 
agement. 


sidered  highly  objectionable  in  England  and  in  Ger- 
many. Gas  is  necessarily  a  monopoly  product ;  and 
its  sale  at  somewhere  near  cost  can  only  be  expected 
of  the  public  authorities.  In  many  incidental  ways, 
the  authorities  are  at  an  advantage  in  the  busi- 
ness. Some  of  the  arguments  that  would  apply  even 
in  America  have  a  greatly  added  force  in  England. 
Vastly  more  use  must  be  made  there,  for  climatic  rea- 
sons, of  artificial  light.  Gas  is  almost  universally 
used  by  all  classes  in  England  and  Scotland,  while  in 
America  refined  petroleum  is  largely  used.  An  abun- 
dant supply  of  a  cheap  illuminant  is  a  social  desidera- 
tum of  the  highest  consequence  in  a  country  where 
during  the  winter  the  daylight  does  not  suffice  for  in- 
door occupations  a  longer  time  on  the  average  than 
from  five  to  six  hours  in  the  twenty-four.  The  boon 
of  cheap  gas  to  the  poor  in  tenement-houses,  for 
instance,  is  inestimable.  It  is  one  of  the  foremost 
agencies  of  civilization.  Again,  an  abundant  use  of 
artificial  light  in  the  gloomy  towns  of  England  and 
Scotland  is  a  potent  safeguard  against  crime.  One  is 
constantly  told  by  chiefs  of  police  that  "  each  light 
counts  for  a  constable." 

It  was,  however,  largely  from  revenue  considera- 
tions that  the  English  and  Scotch  towns  assumed  the 
gas  business.  They  believed  that  they  could  not  only 
cheapen  gas  to  the  consumers  and  provide  a  more 
ample  street-lighting,  but  also  earn  net  profits  and 
thus  reduce  the  rates.  Not  to  enter  upon  a  detailed 
discussion,  I  can  only  say  that  it  is  almost  the  univer- 
sal testimony  in  Great  Britain  that  the  municipal  gas 
enterprises  are  a  brilliant  success.  They  have  steadily 
reduced  the  selling  price,  and  largely  increased  the 
consumption.  Their  management  has  been  as  efficient 
and  economical  as  that  of  the  private  companies. 
They  have  been  able,  while  selling  gas  at  a  low  price, 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OP  BRITISH  TOWNS 


201 


to  pay  expenses  and  interest,  accumulate  sinking- 
funds,  enlarge  the  plants  and  make  good  all  current 
depreciations,  and  still  pay  net  profits  into  the  muni- 
cipal treasuries.  The  price  in  the  large  towns  is  gen- 
erally from  50  cents  to  75  cents  per  1000  feet.  The 
net  profits  are  in  most  places  kept  low  by  reductions 
of  price  whenever  they  tend  to  become  very  consider- 
able. But  when  the  initial  cost  of  the  works  has  been 
paid  off,  it  will  manifestly  be  feasible  to  maintain 
prices  and  to  pay  into  the  town  treasuries  the  large 
sums  that  now  go  to  sinking-fund  and  interest  ac- 
counts ;  and  then  the  gas-works  will  be  very  produc- 
tive properties. 

In  1893  there  were  in  the  United  Kingdom  185  com- 
munities that  maintained  public  gas-supplies,  the 
number  having  increased  from  148  in  1883.  Of  these, 
34  were  in  Scotland  and  6  in  Ireland.  Belfast,  Limer- 
ick, Tralee,  and  Newry  are  the  chief  Irish  towns  that 
make  their  own  gas.  The  Scotch  list  includes  all  of 
the  principal  places,  the  Edinburgh  corporation  hav- 
ing several  years  ago  purchased  the  plants  of  two  gas- 
companies  that  had  supplied  Edinburgh  and  Leith. 
The  notable  thing  about  municipal  gas  in  Scotch  towns 
is  its  marvelously  wide  distribution  to  the  homes  of 
the  people,  and  the  extent  to  which  the  municipality 
makes  itself  responsible  for  public  lighting.  Thus, 
according  to  returns  for  1893,  the  number  of  con- 
sumers (that  is,  of  separate  accounts)  in  the  town  of 
Paisley  was  14,346;  in  Aberdeen  there  were  24,475; 
in  Dundee,  32,629 ;  in  Edinburgh-Leith,  61,397,  and  in 
Glasgow,  156,980.  In  these  Scotch  towns  the  munici- 
pal authorities  light  the  common  stairs  of  tenement- 
houses  as  well  as  the  regular  streets ;  and  it  is  prob- 
ably true  of  Edinburgh,  Dundee,  and  Aberdeen,  as  it 
certainly  is  of  Glasgow,  that  the  common  stairs  and 
courts  of  tenement-houses  are  lighted  at  a  greater  cost 


CHAP.  VIL 


Number  of 
municipal 
gas  under- 
takings. 


Wide  popu- 
lar distri- 
bution of  gas 
in  Scotch 
towns. 


Lighting 
common 
stairs  in 
Scotland. 


202  MUNICIPAL   GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  vii.  for  gas  and  wages  than  the  public  streets.  Thus  the 
total  number  of  public  gas-lights  reported  from  these 
Scotch  towns  was  as  follows:  Paisley,  1,682;  Aber- 
deen, 3,824;  Dundee,  4,746;  Edinburgh,  11,522;  and 
Glasgow,  20,648.  Considering  population  and  area, 
these  numbers  of  public  lights  are  unprecedented. 

Another  interesting  outcome  of  the  assumption  of 
the  gas  business  by  the  Scotch  municipal  authorities, 
and  to  some  extent  also  by  the  English,  is  the  attempt 
to  encourage  the  use  of  gas  as  a  domestic  fuel  by  sup- 

Fuelgasand  *    i          - 

.    plying  stoves  and  fixtures  at  a  very  low  rental  and  by 


keeping  them  in  order  and  repair.  Edinburgh  has 
adopted  Glasgow's  policy  in  this  regard,  and  Aberdeen 
and  Dundee  are  also  leasing  and  selling  gas-stoves. 
Convenience  and  economy  will  undoubtedly  make  gas 
the  ordinary  domestic  fuel  of  the  future  in  these  towns, 
and,  as  purveyors  of  gas,  the  municipal  authorities 
would  seem  to  be  justified  in  providing  such  facilities 
as  will  hasten  the  innovation.  But  whether  they  can 
wisely  attempt  in  the  future  to  compete  with  private 
enterprise  in  supplying  stoves  and  utensils,  either  of 
their  own  manufacture  or  under  the  contract  system, 
must  remain  for  experience  to  determine,  the  presump- 
tion being  wholly  in  favor  of  private  enterprise.  The 

A  prospec-    important  point,  however,  is  that  in  these  Scotch,  and. 

monopoly,  in  some  English,  towns  the  fuel-supply,  following  the 
water-  and  the  illumination-supply,  is  fast  tending 
toward  the  form  of  a  local-service  monopoly,  and  that 
as  such  it  is  already  passing  into  the  hands  of  the 
municipal  authorities  for  manufacture  and  distribu- 
tion. It  is  further  to  be  observed  that  as  soon  as  the 
demand  for  fuel  gas  becomes  sufficiently  large  it  will 
be  manufactured  separately,  and  at  much  lower  prices 
than  the  differently  constituted  illuminating  fluid, 
and  will  be  distributed  in  separate  pipes.  It  is  to  be 
remarked,  also,  that  if  electricity  should  supersede  gas 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 


203 


as  an  illuminant,  the  existing  gas-works  would  be 
available  for  the  fuel-supply,  and  would  not,  therefore, 
as  some  persons  have  predicted,  lose  their  value. 

Comparing  the  returns  of  the  185  public  gas  un- 
dertakings in  the  United  Kingdom  with  those  of  the 
429  private  companies,  it  appears  that,  if  London  and 
its  adjacent  populations  (which  are  still  chiefly  sup- 
plied by  private  companies)  were  omitted,  the  public 
works  are  supplying  considerably  more  than  half  of 
all  the  consumers,  and  making  rather  more  than  half 
of  all  the  gas.  And  the  municipal  supply  is  steadily 
gaining  upon  the  private  supply.  Although  the  re- 
ports of  1893  showed  that  the  receipts  of  private  com- 
panies were  £12,693,000  and  those  of  public  gas-works 
only  £5,983,000,  it  was  further  shown  that  the  public 
works  supplied  1,203,574  consumers  as  against  1,213,- 
322  for  the  private  companies,  while  the  public  de- 
partments also  supplied  201,484  public  lamps,  the 
private  works  supplying  288,021.  The  huge  metro- 
politan consumption,  however,  swells  enormously  the 
volume  of  gas  made  and  sold  by  private  companies ; 
and  the  public  gas  is  only  about  60  per  cent,  as  great 
in  amount.  Outside  of  London,  the  great  towns  still 
supplied  by  private  companies  are  Liverpool,  Dublin, 
Sheffield,  Bristol,  and  Hull.  On  the  side  of  municipal 
supply  are  nearly  all  of  the  enterprising  commercial 
centers :  Glasgow,  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Belfast, 
Edinburgh-Leith,  Leeds,  Bradford,  Nottingham,  Bol- 
ton,  Leicester,  Dundee,  Aberdeen,  Huddersfield,  Old- 
ham,  Salford,  Rochdale,  and  a  host  besides.  The 
ordinary  gross  receipts  of  municipal  gas-works  in  the 
United  Kingdom  have  now  reached  an  aggregate  of 
more  than  $30,000,000  a  year,  and  the  expenditures 
are  about  $24,000,000.  The  local  indebtedness  on  ac- 
count of  gas  undertakings  exceeds  $75,000,000,  and 
this  large  investment  is  both  safe  and  profitable. 


CHAP.  VII. 


Comparative 
statistics  of 
public  and 
private  sup- 
plies. 


Nearly  all 
large  towns 
have  public 

gas-works. 


Debt  and 
finance. 


204 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VII. 


Liverpool's 

municipal 

lines. 


Terms  of 

Sheffield's 

lease. 


Almost  exactly  one  third  of  the  mileage  of  street 
railways  in  Great  Britain  has  been  constructed  and  is 
owned  by  the  municipal  or  local  authorities.  I  have 
explained  in  detail  the  policies  of  Glasgow,  Birming- 
ham, Manchester,  and  Salford.  Liverpool  also  has 
preferred  to  control  tram  lines  as  a  part  of  the  street 
surface,  and  has  kept  them  in  municipal  hands.  The 
Liverpool  system  embraces  about  thirty  miles,  most 
of  it  double-tracked,  and  has  cost  $1,500,000.  It  is 
operated  by  a  leasing  company  which  pays  rents 
amounting  to  10  per  cent,  on  the  city's  investment. 
Inasmuch  as  the  corporation  pays  only  about  3  per 
cent,  interest,  and  the  maintenance  expenses  are  not 
heavy,  it  is  obvious  that  the  rentals  are  rapidly  pay- 
ing off  the  original  cost,  besides  leaving  a  considerable 
sum  for  net  profits  which  Liverpool  applies  to  the 
general  cost  of  such  works  as  street-paving.  In  the 
early  future  Liverpool's  tram  lines  will  be  far  more 
remunerative  than  at  present;  for  under  renewed 
leases  the  city  can  secure  a  higher  rental. 

Sheffield  a  few  years  ago  constructed  ten  miles  of 
tram  lines,  which  are  leased  on  terms  that  will  soon 
have  made  them  an  unencumbered  municipal  asset,  and 
a  source  of  much  profit.  Glasgow's  experiences  must 
have  interest  for  Sheffield,  because  the  lease  to  the 
Sheffield  Tramways  Company,  executed  in  July,  1875, 
for  twenty-one  years,  expires  in  1896 ;  and  the  muni- 
cipal corporation  can  at  its  option  acquire  the  working 
plant,  after  which  it  may  re-lease  the  system  on  terms 
of  increased  advantage  or,  with  special  parliamentary 
consent  to  be  had  for  the  asking,  it  may  venture  upon 
direct  municipal  operation.  The  form  of  the  existing 
Sheffield  lease  is  deserving  of  mention.  First,  the 
company  pays  the  city  a  yearly  interest  on  the  full 
amount  of  the  city's  investment  and  outlay  of  all 
kinds  connected  with  the  tramway  system.  Second, 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OP  BRITISH  TOWNS 


205 


the  company  pays  a  minimum  yearly  rental  of  £100  CHAP.  vn. 
($500)  for  each  street  mile  of  railway,  with  the  further 
proviso  that  if  the  company  earns  a  dividend  of  10 
per  cent,  an  additional  £50  of  mileage  rental  is  to  be 
paid,  with  further  similar  increases  on  a  sliding  scale 
for  every  additional  5  per  cent,  of  dividends.  The 
principle  of  the  sliding  scale  is  introduced  in  numer- 
ous contracts  between  English  municipalities  and 
street-railway  operating  companies.  As  yet,  the  com- 
panies are  too  young  for  maximum  pecuniary  results. 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  Bradford,  Leeds,  Oldham, 
Huddersfield,  Sunderland,  Blackpool,  Dundee,  Green- 
ock,  Birkenhead,  Preston,  Blackburn,  Bootle,  South 
Shields,  Plymouth,  and  Eccles  are  among  the  towns 
that  have  entered  upon  the  policy  of  municipal  street 
railways.  The  Bradford  lines  are  leased  to  two  com- 
panies which  pay  respectively  £300  and  £400  per  mile 
per  annum.  The  Sunderland  lines  are  leased  at  4£ 
per  cent,  on  cost,  together  with  a  sliding  scale  rental 
like  Sheffield's.  The  Newcastle  system  is  profitably 
leased  at  about  10  per  cent,  on  the  investment.  Ac- 
cording to  a  recent  return,  there  were  in  Great  Brit- 
ain 274  miles  of  publicly  owned  lines,  and  573  miles 
of  lines  owned  by  private  companies.  The  mileage 
of  municipal  lines  would  be  much  greater  than  it  is, 
but  for  the  fact  that  the  suburbs  of  English  cities  as 
a  rule  lie  beyond  the  corporate  limits ;  and  in  many 
instances  the  companies  that  are  lessees  of  lines  in- 
side the  limits  are  owners  of  suburban  extensions. 
The  private  companies  were  all  chartered  for  twenty- 
one  years ;  and  inasmuch  as  the  decade  from  1872  to 
1882  witnessed  the  initiation  of  a  great  majority  of 
the  street  railways,  the  franchises  are  beginning  one 
after  another  to  fall  in.  Under  these  circumstances,  franchises? 
the  evident  sentiment  is  favorable  to  the  acquisition 
of  private  lines  by  municipal  authorities;  and  the 


Mileage  of 

British 
street  rail- 
ways. 


206 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VII. 


Demand  for 
municipal 
operation. 


Advantages 
of  public 
ownership 
of  tracks. 


Hudders- 
fteld's  direct 
management 

of  transit. 


next  few  years  will  add  very  much  relatively  to  the 
mileage  thus  controlled. 

To  some  extent,  moreover,  there  is  apparent  in 
Great  Britain  a  demand  for  municipal  operation. 
There  is,  of  course,  no  necessary  connection  between 
the  ownership  of  the  lines  as  a  part  of  the  surface  of 
the  highways  and  the  operation  of  a  common-carrier 
business.  One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  municipal 
ownership  of  the  lines  is  the  better  control  that  it 
gives  over  the  local  transit  system  as  an  aid  to  the 
wise  distribution  of  population  throughout  the  town's 
area,  on  grounds  of  the  public  health  and  general  wel- 
fare. It  also  has  its  great  advantages  in  helping  to 
make  more  apparent  the  natural  right  of  the  public 
treasury  to  the  rental  values  that  arise  out  of  the 
monopoly  of  tram  lines  in  the  streets.  It  has  been 
found  un4er  the  system  of  leases  to  private  operating 
companies  that  it  is  not  difficult  to  secure  favorable 
conditions  for  the  people  as  to  fares,  working-men's 
cars,  school-children's  privileges,  and  the  like. 

The  notable  instance  of  direct  municipal  operation 
is  that  of  Glasgow,  whose  new  policy  I  have  already 
described.  In  England,  the  case  of  Huddersfield  is 
conspicuous.  This  enterprising  Yorkshire  town  of 
100,000  inhabitants  has  entered  with  much  boldness 
upon  the  direct  management  of  public  works;  and 
having  tried  corporation  water,  gas,  and  electric  sup- 
plies, and  municipal  parks,  cemeteries,  markets,  baths, 
libraries,  and  technical  schools,  it  was  not  content 
until  in  1890  it  obtained  parliamentary  authority  to 
operate  steam  tram  lines.  The  experiment  was  begun 
with  enthusiasm  and  is  deemed  successful.  About 
twenty  miles  of  lines  are  owned  and  worked  by  the 
council,  and  a  recent  report  showed  nearly  4,000,000 
passengers  carried  in  a  year.  Rates  have  been  made 
low,  and  the  system  is  locally  popular. 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BEITISH  TOWNS 


207 


In  1893  two  other  municipal  corporations — namely, 
Plymouth  and  Blackpool — entered  upon  the  business 
of  common-carriers.  Blackpool  is  a  favorite  seaside 
resort  on  the  west  coast,  and  has  rapidly  grown  to  a 
town  of  more  than  25,000  people.  Its  municipal  au- 
thorities are  now  operating  electric  street  railways  as 
a  part  of  an  exceedingly  active  municipal  program. 
Plymouth  is  an  ancient  town  with  modern  proclivi- 
ties which  will  soon  have  reached  its  full  100,000  of 
population,  and  with  its  immediately  adjacent  commu- 
nities is  already  much  larger  than  that.  Its  experience 
in  the  conduct  of  street  railways  is  too  brief  as  yet  to 
afford  any  instruction,  but  it  will  be  worthy  of  future 
note.  It  is  significant  that  the  Liverpool  corporation 
some  time  ago  decided  to  obtain  parliamentary  au- 
thority to  operate  street  railways,  its  immediate  ob- 
ject, perhaps,  being  to  improve  its  position  for  making 
advantageous  terms  with  leasing  companies.  The 
general  progress  of  street  railways  in  the  United  King- 
dom may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  a  total  invest- 
ment in  them  of  $20,000,000  in  1878  had  grown  to 
nearly  $70,000,000  in  1893 ;  that  a  mileage  of  less  than 
300  had  grown  to  about  1000 ;  that  146,000,000  pas- 
sengers in  1878  had  increased  to  nearly  600,000,000 
in  1893;  and  that  gross  receipts,  which  were  in  the 
former  year  less  than  $6,000,000,  were  $18,000,000  in 
1893.  These  are  not  formidable  figures  when  brought 
into  comparison  with  corresponding  statistics  that 
show  the  enormous  expansion  of  street  railways  in  the 
United  States.  But  the  English  systems  are  prepar- 
ing to  give  us,  within  ten  years,  some  extremely  inter- 
esting experiments  in  the  field  of  municipal  operation. 

The  perfect  unity  of  British  municipal  administra- 
tion makes  it  possible  to  consider  each  department  in 
its  bearing  upon  all  the  rest.  Thus  it  is  evident  that 
the  future  of  municipal  tramway  operation  is  inti- 


CHAP.  VII. 


Blackpool 
as  another 
instance. 


And  also  old 
Plymouth. 


Liverpool's 
position. 


General 
progress  of 
street  rail- 
ways. 


Municipaliz- 
ing electri- 
city. 


208 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT   IN   GREAT  BRITAIN 


Light  and 
power 
plants. 


CHAP.  vn.  mately  connected  with  the  development  of  electrical 
appliances.  Some  of  the  most  important  municipal 
corporations  have  as  yet  declined  to  construct  electri- 
cal works,  but  the  more  general  tendency  in  Great 
Britain  bids  fair  to  be  toward  the  municipalization 
of  electricity.  The  towns  are  beginning  with  a  cen- 
tral lighting-plant,  and  are  proposing  also  to  furnish 
power  for  machinery.  It  is  expected  that  when  an 
approved  system  of  electric  transit  is  devised,  the 
municipal  electric  works  will  be  prepared  to  furnish 
power  to  the  lessee  tramway  companies,  unless  the 
town  should  prefer  to  operate  the  tram  lines  directly. 
As  yet,  there  is  comparatively  little  electric  street- 
lighting  in  England,  outside  of  London.  Municipal 
works  have  lately  been  entered  upon  in  Manchester, 
Cambridge,  Oldham,  Huddersfield,  Brighton,  Ports- 
mouth, Burnley,  Blackpool,  and  several  other  towns. 


For  nothing  else  except  waterworks  have  British 
local  authorities  since  1870  expended  so  much  money 
as  for  improvements  that  may  be  grouped  under  the 
words  harbors,  docks,  piers,  and  quays.  England's 
shipping  interests  are  of  vital  importance,  and  the 
navigable  estuaries  are  so  frequent  that  a  great  num- 
ber of  thriving  towns  have  access  to  the  sea.  It  is 
deemed  in  England  a  sound  policy  for  towns  to  im- 
prove their  facilities  for  commerce  even  at  great  ex- 
pense. The  cost  for  the  most  part  is  sustained  by 
harbor-dues  and  tolls,  and  is  therefore  levied  upon 
commerce  rather  than  upon  the  ratepayers.  Liver- 
pool's vast  system  of  docks  has  been  considered  one 
of  the  marvels  of  our  generation.  There  are  more 
than  thirty  of  these  huge  artificial  basins,  with  a  quay- 
frontage  of  twenty  miles.  It  is  justly  claimed  by 
Liverpool  that  it  "  has  doubled  its  population  and  its 
trade  every  sixteen  years  during  the  present  century." 


Harbors, 
docks,  piers, 
and  quays. 


Liverpool's 
docks. 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  209 

Its  preeminence  as  a  port  is  not,  however,  to  be  so  CHAP.  vn. 
absolute  henceforth.  Manchester's  great  canal,  with 
the  docks  and  quays  at  Manchester-Salford,  is  in- 
tended to  bring  a  large  part  of  Liverpool's  former 
ocean  freight  traffic  directly  to  the  mills  of  the  spin- 
ning and  weaving  district ;  and  Southampton's  nota- 
ble harbor-improvements  are  designed  to  divert  much 
of  Liverpool's  old-time  transatlantic  passenger  busi-  . 

*  jr  o  Liverpools 

ness.     But  these  recent  sources  of  competition  are      activity 

.  under  new 

only  stimulating  Liverpool  to   greater  efforts,  and  competition. 
new  port  facilities  and  shipping  conveniences  on  a 
large  scale  are  the  order  of  the  day. 

Meanwhile,  Swansea  and  Cardiff,  on  the  south  shore 
of  "Wales  and  on  the  north  coast  of  the  Bristol  Chan- 
nel,  have  grown  to  colossal  importance  as  seaports. 
Swansea  has  practically  doubled  its  population  since 
1881,  has  fifty  acres  of  docks,  and  has  a  great  export 
trade  in  copper,  tin-plate,  and  various  metal  products. 
Cardiff  has  had  a  still  more  remarkable  growth,  and  Remarkable 
ranks  as  the  third  port  in  the  British  empire.  Re-  nsediff.Car 
cent  enlargements  give  it  a  dock  area  of  150  acres, 
and  its  various  harbor  improvements  are  on  a  gener- 
ous scale.  The  rise  of  Cardiff  has  at  length  awakened 

Bristol's 

Bristol,  which  was  once  a  far  greater  shipping-point    awakening. 
than  Glasgow  or  Liverpool,  and  which  has  been  sur- 
passed by  one  rival  after  another  for  no  reason  so  po- 
tent as  that  of  their  superior  civic  and  municipal 
energy.   Bristol  is  now  carrying  out  extensive  harbor 
improvements.     Plymouth  with  the  protection  of  its    Plymouth. 
Sound  by  a  great  breakwater,  and  with  its  ship- 
building industry  and  its  adjacent  navy-yards,  has 
more  than  regained  its  old-time  importance  as  a  ren- 
dezvous of  ships  and  a  trading  port.    I  have  alluded 
to  Southampton's  new  harbor  undertakings.     The       ton. 
Thames  improvements  and  the  London  docks  are 
matters  of  common  knowledge.     On  the  east  coast 

I.-  14 


210  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  vii.  one  finds  a  striking  array  of  new  harbor  improve- 
ments. Old  Boston  has  built  a  new  municipal  dock 
Boston,  at  much  expense,  and  is  reaping  the  benefits  of  a 

Stockton,  commercial  awakening.  Hull  has  accomplished  im- 
portant works  that  are  reviving  its  shipping  interests, 
and  Stockton  is  another  old  port  that  is  finding  new 

sunderiand    life.    At  Sunderland  and  Newcastle,  the  great  coal- 

and  New-  ,  , 

castle.  shipping  ports,  astounding  improvements  have  been 
carried  out  within  a  recent  period,  millions  upon  mil- 
lions having  been  spent  for  new  docks,  deep  channels, 
and  all  the  paraphernalia  of  the  best  modern  harbors. 
And  I  have  by  no  means  exhausted  the  list  of  seaport 
towns  where  important  harbor- works  have  lately  been 
accomplished  or  begun.  In  1891  the  outstanding 


cost  of  bar-    loans  of  English  and  Welsh  local  authorities  for  har- 
bor improve-  ' ,  . 
ments.      bor  and  dock  improvements  amounted  to  nearly  $160,- 

000,000;  and  even  this  vast  sum  falls  short  of  the 
total  outlay  of  the  past  thirty  years.  British  trade 
and  commerce  thrive  by  reason  of  these  great  collec- 
tive undertakings  that  are  so  characteristic  a  part  of 
the  modern  municipal  and  governmental  policy. 

Next  after  waterworks  and  harbor  improvements, 
in  the  list  of  undertakings  for  which  the  English 
towns  and  localities  have  incurred  indebtedness,  comes 
the  item  of  street  and  road  improvements,  against 
which  there  are  outstanding  loans  of  perhaps  $145,- 
000,000.  In  reality,  the  street  and  road  debt  can  only 
suggest  the  magnitude  of  the  work  that  has  been  ac- 
constructionl  complished,  inasmuch  as  highway  construction  and 
paving  work  are  so  largely  paid  for  out  of  current 
revenues.  It  is  not  many  years  since  England  was 
a  country  of  wretched  highroads  and  of  abominable 
town  streets.  All  this  has  been  changed,  and  the  trans- 
formation, which  has  been  costly,  has  seemed  to  impose 
a  heavy  burden  by  reason  of  its  rapidity.  But  it 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 


211 


would  have  been  a  good  investment  at  almost  any    CHAP.  vn. 
price.   Fortunately,  the  work  has  been  done  in  a  per- 
manent manner.     Street  pavements,  whether  of  gran-    England's 
ite  blocks,  of  asphalt,  or  of  wood,  have  been  laid  upon   and  streets. 
an  indestructible  foundation  of  concrete.    The  mac- 
adamized roads  are  so  solidly  founded  that  they  will 
endure  for  centuries. 


A  solicitous  regard  for  the  food-supplies  of  its  popu- 
lation is  one  of  the  recognized  duties  of  the  modern 
English  town.  This  concern  has  manifested  itself  in 
the  municipalization  of  markets ;  and  the  town  which 
has  not  provided  one  or  several  great  and  elaborately 
appointed  market-houses,  is  not  considered  progres- 
sive. Municipal  slaughter-houses  are  becoming  numer- 
ous, and  every  detail  in  the  supply  of  a  town  with  meat 
is  closely  supervised  by  the  public  authorities.  About 
$30,000,000  of  outstanding  loans  for  market  and  abat- 
toir improvements  gives  evidence  of  a  movement  that 
is  at  once  recent  and  wide-spread.  Moreover,  every 
town  is  obliged  to  have  its  public  analyst,  whose  lab- 
oratory is  conducted  under  the  general  direction  of 
the  medical  officer  of  health,  and  who  is  constantly 
engaged  in  the  detection  of  food  adulterations.  Food 
inspectors,  as  emissaries  of  the  Sanitary  Department, 
are  aggressively  making  the  rounds  of  the  markets 
and  milk-shops,  and  the  very  existence  of  so  good  an 
organization  acts  as  a  deterrent  and  protects  the  con- 
sumers against  unwholesome  food.  The  crusade  in 
behalf  of  pure  milk  is  waged  with  especial  vigor,  and 
with  incalculable  benefits  to  the  health  of  young  chil- 
dren. The  public  markets  not  only  promote  the  effi- 
ciency of  the  health-inspection  of  food,  but  also  enable 
the  masses  of  the  population  to  supply  themselves 
more  cheaply  than  would  otherwise  be  possible.  In  this 
way  they  promote  Britain's  commercial  supremacy. 


Public  mar- 
kets. 


Municipal 
abattoirs. 


Public  ana- 
lysts. 


Milk-inspec- 
tion. 


212 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VII. 


Public  parks 
as  a  new 
enterprise. 


Extentofthe 
movement. 


Liverpool. 


Sheffield's 
metamor- 
phosis. 


Leeds. 


Notting- 
ham's plea- 
sure- 
grounds. 


Within  the  memory  of  men  still  young,  the  majority 
of  British  industrial  towns  were  practically  without 
any  parks,  public  gardens,  or  recreation-grounds  what- 
soever; and  those  that  had  such  grounds  possessed 
them  through  good  fortune  rather  than  any  act  of 
public  policy.  Such  a  thing  as  a  municipal  depart- 
ment for  the  provision  and  administration  of  public 
pleasure-grounds  was  almost  unheard  of.  Even  the 
old-time  village  greens  and  town  commons  had  for  the 
most  part  been  occupied  and  built  up  by  encroaching 
landlords.  An  entire  change  has  come  about,  and 
every  town  has  created  its  system  of  parks  and  gar- 
dens. Many  of  these  pleasure-grounds  have  been  the 
gifts  of  public-spirited  citizens.  Liverpool's  municipal 
policy  in  regard  to  parks  has  been  magnificent.  It 
was  entered  upon  in  about  the  year  1867,  and  has  been 
steadily  continued  with  brilliant  results  from  every 
point  of  view.  Sheffield  —  once  so  devoid  of  such  at- 
tractions, now  supplied  with  a  dozen  charming  parks 
and  recreation-grounds  in  which  are  museums,  gal- 
leries, and  baths  —  is  a  fair  type  of  the  esthetic  meta- 
morphosis of  the  British  industrial  towns.  Leeds  is 
another  of  the  great  manufacturing  centers  whose  mu- 
nicipal authorities  have  recently  created  a  full  sys- 
tem of  parks  and  gardens.  Let  us  take  the  summary 
record  for  Nottingham,  as  another  instance :  "  The 
town  possesses  an  arboretum,  about  eighteen  acres  in 
extent,  in  a  very  picturesque  situation ;  there  are  also 
several  broad  walks  for  a  total  length  of  about  three 
miles,  besides  public  cricket-  and  play-grounds  con- 
taining about  150  acres,  the  greater  part  of  which 
were  set  out  under  the  Local  Inclosure  Act.  Bulwell 
Forest,  a  piece  of  uninclosed  land  containing  about 
135  acres,  has  been  acquired  by  the  corporation,  and 
is  maintained  as  an  open  space  for  the  use  of  the  in- 
habitants. Nottingham  has  greater  bathing  facilities 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BEITISH  TOWNS  213 

provided  for  the  inhabitants  than  any  other  town  of  CHAP.  vn. 
its  size  in  the  kingdom"  (its  population  being  about 
225,000).  But  it  would  be  a  much  briefer  task  to 
enumerate  the  towns  that  have  neglected  parks  than 
to  give  a  list  of  those  that  have  recently  accomplished 
creditable  things  in  this  direction.  Municipal  councils  ?lay- 

0  *  grounds  and 

have  recognized  the  wholesomeness  of  the  athletic  smaii  parks, 
tendency  that  makes  young  English  folk  of  both  sexes 
so  fond  of  outdoor  recreations,  and  are  everywhere 
providing  playgrounds.  Old  commons  are  being  re- 
stored to  their  rightful  public  use ;  churchyards  and 
ancient  cemeteries  are  being  made  over  into  small 
parks ;  and  the  private  parks  of  old  families  are,  either 
by  gift  or  by  purchase,  falling  to  the  inheritance  of 
the  municipalities.  So  many  of  these  open  spaces 
have  been  municipalized  without  the  incurrence  of 
public  debt  that  the  total  achievements  of  the  move- 
ment could  hardly  be  inferred  from  the  existence  of 
local  loans  to  the  extent  of  $20,000,000.  It  is  safe  to  value  of 
assert  that  the  real  value  of  the  park  and  pleasure-  parks. 
ground  acquisitions  of  the  English  towns  since  1870 
is  several  times  that  amount. 

Simultaneously  with  the  closing  of  ancient  burying- 
grounds  adjacent  to  churches,  and  the  utilization  of  Municipal 
many  of  them  for  small  parks  in  the  very  heart  of  ground! 
populous  towns,  there  has  been  recognized  a  necessity 
for  large  cemeteries  under  public  administration ;  and 
the  municipal  authorities  have  quite  generally  as- 
sumed the  duties  prescribed  by  Parliament  for  public- 
burial  boards.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  recite  the 
social  and  sanitary  benefits  that  accrue  to  modern 
town  populations  from  a  comprehensive  public  treat- 
ment of  the  problem  of  the  interment  of  the  dead. 
Perhaps  $15,000,000  would  fail  to  represent  the  recent 
investment  of  English  local  authorities  in  the  provi- 
sion of  public  cemeteries. 

L— 14* 


214 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VII. 


Municipal 

I >;it lis  and 

wash-houses. 


Liverpool's 
system. 


Nottingham 
and  Oldham. 


Coventry's 
enterprise. 


Salford, 
Sheffield, 
and  other 

towns. 


The  housing 
question. 


Interest  in  public  baths  and  wash-houses  had  been 
aroused  throughout  the  United  Kingdom  much  earlier, 
as  has  been  shown  in  the  chapter  on  Birmingham, 
than  the  need  was  felt  for  parks  and  open  spaces. 
The  condition  of  the  crowded  town  populations  was 
such  that  bathing  facilities  seemed  to  be  more  imper- 
atively required  than  pleasure-grounds  or  libraries. 
The  demand  was  recognized  by  most  of  the  large 
towns.  I  have  given  an  account  of  the  experiences  of 
Glasgow,  Birmingham,  and  Manchester  in  providing 
splendid  systems  of  public  baths ;  and  Liverpool,  it 
should  be  said,  has  kept  fully  abreast  of  its  contempo- 
raries, having  established  seven  well-distributed  bath- 
ing institutions,  under  a  policy  begun  before  1850 
and  extending  to  the  present  time,  and  at  a  total  cost 
of  perhaps  $800,000.  I  have  alluded  to  Nottingham's 
remarkable  bathing  facilities.  The  Oldham  corpora- 
tion has  constructed  great  public  baths  as  a  memorial 
to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  is  extending  the  system.  Cov- 
entry, an  old  town  throbbing  with  new  industrial  life, 
and  fortunate  in  the  possession  of  a  most  intelligent 
and  energetic  municipal  government,  has  established 
admirable  baths  as  a  part  of  its  long  list  of  municipal 
enterprises.  Salford  does  not  send  its  young  people 
to  Manchester  for  such  luxuries  as  swimming-baths, 
but  has  provided  four  distinct  establishments  at  a 
cost  of  $200,000.  Among  other  towns  —  not  to  at- 
tempt a  full  list  —  that  have  adopted  the  baths  and 
wash-houses  acts,  and  provided  admirable  public  es- 
tablishments of  this  character,  are  Sheffield,  Hudders- 
field,  Halifax,  Birkenhead,  Hanley,  Bolton,  Leicester, 
Plymouth,  and  Kidderminster. 

The  topic  to  which  I  must  next  allude  belongs  rather 
to  the  future  than  to  the  past.  The  character  of  the 
housing  of  the  people  has  come  to  occupy  almost  or 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BEITISH  TOWNS  215 

quite  the  chief  place  in  the  minds  of  British  sanitary    CHAP.  vn. 
and  social  reformers  and  municipal  statesmen.  I  have 
recounted  the  great  projects  of  Glasgow  and  Birming-   Good  exam- 
ham,  which  have  led  the  way ;  and  it  is  evident  that      lowed. 
within  the  coming  quarter-century  a  marvelous  trans- 
formation will  have  been  wrought  throughout  the 
towns  of  the  kingdom.  A  notable  beginning  has  been 

0  .  °  Liverpool's 

made  in  several  other  towns  besides  those  whose  efforts  demolition 
have  been  described.  Liverpool,  with  a  population  tary  houses. 
that  is  denser  and  is  less  favorably  housed  than  that 
of  any  other  English  town,  has  approached  the  prob- 
lem with  energy  and  persistence.  In  the  ten  years 
from  1881  to  1891,  nearly  5000  houses  were  demolished 
in  Liverpool,  about  10,000  new  houses  having  been 
erected  in  the  same  decade.  In  the  next  twelve 
months,  to  1892,  there  were  437  houses  taken  down 
and  only  371  new  ones  built.  Of  the  437,  more  than 
half  had  been  bought  up  by  the  municipal  authorities 
as  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  council  committee  on 

-r  •  it  n  •    i    The  town  as 

insanitary  property.  Liverpool  has  seen  the  financial  landlord. 
advantage  of  Mr.  Chamberlain's  Birmingham  plan, 
and  has  acquired  a  great  amount  of  property  for  the 
sake  of  clearing  off  condemned  houses  and  widening 
the  streets,  and  then  instead  of  selling  the  building 
sites  it  has  leased  them  for  75  years.  The  Liverpool 
corporation  has  also  invested  considerable  sums  in 
model  tenement-houses,  and  is  the  direct  landlord  of 
hundreds  of  working  people.  Millions  have  been  ex- 
pended in  these  Liverpool  improvement  projects,  and  Liverpool's 
the  policy  is  to  be  maintained.  It  is  easy  to  calculate  ments. 
that  strict  and  wise  regulations  to  prevent  the  improp- 
er construction  of  new  houses,  coupled  with  a  steady 
plan  of  demolishing  old  houses  as  they  become  unfit 
for  habitation,  must  in  a  few  decades  result  in  a  re- 
constructed city,  with  a  diminished  death-rate  and  a 
higher  tone  of  civilized  life.  The  Scotch  town  of 


216 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VII. 

Greenock's 
municipal 
cottages. 


Hudders- 
Held  also. 


Dublin's 
municipal 
tenements. 


Sheffield's 
housing  and 
street  re- 
forms. 


Bradford's 
new  era. 


The  Housing 
Act  of  1890. 


Greenock  some  years  ago  cleared  away  several  acres 
of  wretched  old  cottages,  and  built  as  municipal  prop- 
erty about  two  hundred  houses  with  perfect  sanitary 
arrangements,  in  which  a  thousand  people  are  living. 
Still  earlier,  the  Huddersfield  authorities  had  carried 
out  a  large  scheme  of  a  similar  kind,  which  has  proved 
a  good  pecuniary  investment.  Even  Dublin,  the  Irish 
capital,  has  entered  upon  the  policy  of  municipal  tene- 
ments, having  completed  nearly  a  hundred  smallhouses 
in  1890,  which  are  a  great  success  in  every  way. 

Sheffield,  whose  civic  and  municipal  regeneration 
has  been  so  marvelous,  adopted  in  1876  a  scheme  for 
the  acquisition  of  property,  the  tearing  down  of  unfit 
houses,  and  a  revision  of  the  central  street  system. 
The  work  has  been  steadily  prosecuted  at  a  large 
cost,  and  with  benefits  innumerable.  Bradford  is 
another  great  town  that  has  been  completely  re- 
modeled, with  sanitary  results  that  could  hardly 
have  been  anticipated  by  the  most  sanguine  advocates 
of  the  bold  municipal  program  that  was  entered  upon 
in  the  seventies.  The  general  interest  in  the  question 
of  housing  reforms  led  to  the  enactment  by  Parlia- 
ment in  1890  of  a  very  elaborate  general  measure  en- 
titled the  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes  Act,  which 
goes  much  further  than  any  previous  legislation  in 
confirming  to  local  authorities  a  wide  range  of  power 
both  as  to  the  acquisition  of  property  and  its  clear- 
ance of  insanitary  structures,  and  also  the  provision 
of  new  houses  whether  directly  by  the  authorities  or 
by  private  owners  in  conformity  with  plans  approved 
by  the  municipal  governments.  Under  the  favorable 
methods  provided  in  this  law,  there  has  begun  to  ap- 
pear a  considerable  activity  in  many  quarters. 

This  care  for  the  decency  and  wholesomeness  of  the 
working-man's  home  has  been  attended  by  intelligent 
effort  to  provide  special  accommodations  for  the  classes 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS  217 

of  people  who  ought,  temporarily  or  permanently,  to    CHAP.  vn. 
be  removed  from  residential  quarters.     Particular 
activity  has  been  shown  in  the  establishment  of  mu-  ,  Hospitals 

f  .  .  fonnfectious 

nicipal  hospitals  for  cases  of  infectious  disease;  and  diseases. 
epidemics  not  only  of  cholera,  smallpox,  and  typhus 
have  thus  been  brought  under  control,  but  those  far 
more  dangerous  maladies  scarlet  fever,  diphtheria,  and 
even  measles,  have  been  checked  in  their  ravages.  In 
hardly  any  other  direction  have  the  British  towns  ac- 
complished more  than  in  their  triumph  over  the  de- 
structiveness  of  infection,  and  the  result  is  largely  due 
to  the  provision  of  epidemic  hospitals. 

Every  city  has  a  floating  population  that  finds  shelter 
either  in  the  so-called  common  lodging-houses,  or  else  Municipal 
as  lodgers  sleeping  on  the  floors  of  the  already  over-  house!. 
crowded  homes  of  the  tenement-house  families.  The 
well-being  of  the  town  requires  close  supervision  over 
this  class  of  people,  and  the  other  British  towns  to  some 
extent  are  following  the  example  of  Glasgow  by  con- 
ducting municipal  model  lodging-houses.  So-called 
industrial  schools,  which  are  in  fact  homes  for  neg- 
lected or  misdemeanant  children,  provide  everywhere 
for  another  element  of  the  town  population  that  needs 
to  be  separately  sheltered  and  trained ;  and  for  the 
seaport  towns  the  industrial  schools  frequently  take  hoines,"tc. 
the  form  of  "  training  ships."  But  these  schools,  like 
the  local  workhouses,  the  lunatic  asylums,  and  the 
whole  mechanism  of  the  relief  of  the  poor,  although 
closely  associated  with  the  municipal  life  and  devel- 
opment, do  not  ordinarily  come  under  the  direct  ad- 
ministration of  the  municipal  councils,  and  may  be 
regarded  as  belonging  rather  to  local  administration 
in  general  than  to  the  municipalities  distinctively. 

The  adoption  of  the  Free  Public  Libraries  Act  by 
the  greater  British  towns  has  been  almost  unanimous, 


218 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VII. 


Free  libra- 
ries in  a 
hundred 
towns. 


Size  of 
libraries. 


Working- 
men  in  the 
reading- 
rooms. 


Galleries  and 
museums. 


Growth  of 

interest  in 

localhistory. 


and  many  of  the  smaller  municipalities  have  also  by 
popular  vote  instructed  their  councils  to  provide  refer- 
ence and  lending  libraries  and  free  reading-rooms.  A 
list  of  these  municipal  libraries  would  require  citation 
of  the  names  of  nearly  or  quite  a  hundred  towns.  Be- 
sides Birmingham  and  Manchester,  with  about  200,000 
volumes  each,  Leeds  is  to  be  mentioned  as  approxima- 
ting that  number,  while  Liverpool,  Sheffield,  Salford, 
Bristol,  Nottingham,  Bolton,  Bradford,  and  Newcas- 
tle have  municipal  libraries  that  will  soon  have  reached 
the  100,000-volume  mark.  Among  the  towns  that 
have  from  25,000  to  50,000  volumes  or  more  are  Bir- 
kenhead,  Blackburn,  Brighton,  Cambridge,  Cardiff, 
Coventry,  Derby,  Halifax,  Oldham,  Plymouth,  Ports- 
mouth, Rochdale,  Tynemouth,  and  Wolverhamptou. 
A  great  number  of  towns,  which  have  somewhat  re- 
cently begun  to  levy  the  rate  of  a  penny  in  the  pound 
for  libraries  and  reading-rooms,  have  already  accumu- 
lated collections  of  from  10,000  to  25,000  volumes 
which  are  rapidly  growing.  The  free  reading-rooms, 
open  at  night,  are  everywhere  popular  with  working- 
men. 

Municipal  art-galleries  are  by  no  means  as  common 
as  municipal  libraries ;  but  there  is  a  strong  awaken- 
ing, in  all  the  British  towns  of  any  considerable  size 
or  standing,  of  the  kind  of  local  pride  that  could  never 
rest  satisfied  without  such  agencies  as  museums  of 
art,  of  science,  and  of  local  history  and  archaeology. 
A  beginning  once  made,  such  institutions  grow  by 
natural  processes  of  accretion ;  and  their  develop- 
ment everywhere  in  England,  within  thirty  years, 
would  require  a  long  chapter  if  it  were  to  be  re- 
counted with  any  detail.  The  dignity  of  all  the  pro- 
vincial towns  is  enhanced  by  this  joint  recognition  of 
history  and  of  esthetics-,  and  the  whole  life  of  each 
community  is  made  the  richer  and  better  rounded. 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BRITISH  TOWNS 


219 


The  great  Education  Act  of  1870,  under  which  ele- 
mentary instruction  became  a  public  interest,  has  re- 
sulted in  the  creation  of  a  new  educational  "  plant " 
of  buildings  and  furnishings,  the  magnitude  of  which 
is  evidenced  by  an  indebtedness  on  this  account  of 
about  $100,000,000.  But  the  circumstances  under 
which  the  national-school  system  was  founded  made 
it  appear  necessary  to  intrust  its  conduct  in  each  town 
to  a  separately  elected  school-board  rather  than  to  the 
existing  town  councils  and  local  authorities.  In  my 
judgment  it  would  have  been  far  better  if  in  the  in- 
corporated towns  the  council  had  been  authorized  to 
administer  the  Education  Act.  Just  so  it  would  be 
better,  also,  in  my  opinion,  if  poor-relief  within  all 
municipal  districts  should  be  in  the  hands  of  the  mu- 
nicipal government  rather  than  in  those  of  specially 
elected  boards  of  guardians  of  the  poor.  Sooner  or 
later,  I  am  convinced,  the  British  people  will  perceive 
the  advantage  of  a  complete  unification  of  local  gov- 
ernment; and  then  the  school-board  and  the  guardians 
of  the  poor  will  become,  simply,  a  couple  of  standing 
committees  of  the  town  council,  as  the  police-board 
and  the  health-board  now  are. 

The  new  technical  education  acts  have  wisely  rec- 
ognized the  town  councils  rather  than  the  school- 
boards,  and  there  is  growing  up  in  every  large  center 
of  British  industry  a  system  of  general  and  special 
instruction  in  all  the  scientific,  artistic,  and  technical 
principles  and  processes  that  pertain  to  standard  lines 
of  manufacture;  and  this  system  is  under  complete 
municipal  control  as  a  department  of  the  work  of  the 
town  council.  It  is  supported  in  part  by  local  rates, — 
the  technical  education  acts  having  authorized  muni- 
cipalities to  levy  a  penny  rate  for  such  schools, —  and 
in  still  larger  part  by  subsidies  out  of  the  royal  ex- 
chequer. Manchester  and  Birmingham,  as  I  have 


CHAP.  VII. 


Public  edu- 
cation. 


A  question 
of  adminis- 
tration. 


Municipal 
technical 
schools. 


How 
supported. 


220 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VII. 


Notting- 
ham's policy. 


Oldham. 


Hudders- 
field. 


Kiddermin- 
ster. 

Bradford, 

Sheffield, 

and  Leeds. 

Swansea. 


In  "The 
Potteries." 


The  night 

classes  in 

applied  art 

and  science. 


shown,  are  entering  magnificently  upon  this  policy. 
But  so  also  are  many  other  towns,  some  of  them  hav- 
ing begun  years  ago.  Nottingham  learned  that  it  was 
in  danger  of  losing  its  preeminence  in  certain  special 
textile  lines,  and  discovered  some  years  ago  that  its 
declining  trade  was  due  to  the  rise  of  Chemnitz  in 
Saxony,  and  further,  that  the  success  of  Chemnitz  was 
due  to  a  system  of  municipal  technical  schools  of 
weaving,  dyeing,  designing,  and  so  on.  Nottingham 
has  adopted  the  German  policy,  with  gratifying  re- 
sults. Oldham,  like  Manchester,  is  adapting  great 
technical  schools  to  the  needs  of  its  cotton  industries. 
Huddersfield,  the  center  of  the  Yorkshire  woolen  in- 
dustry, has  applied  the  same  policy.  Kidderminster, 
the  great  carpet  town,  maintains  its  school  of  design. 
Bradford  is  in  line  with  its  contemporaries.  Sheffield 
and  Leeds  have  taken  steps  in  the  same  direction  of 
technical  instruction.  Swansea  maintains  schools  of 
metallurgy  and  of  mechanical  engineering,  on  account 
of  their  benefit  to  its  vast  metal-working  industries. 
Hanley  and  Burslem,  the  chief  towns  of  the  famous 
"  potteries  "  district,  have  one  its  "  Government  School 
of  Design  "  and  the  other  its  "  Wedgwood  Institute," 
—  both  of  which  teach  the  technical  science  and  the 
decorative  art  that  bear  upon  the  wonderful  special 
industrial  developments  of  the  region.  Besides  the 
pupils  who  take  advanced  instruction  in  the  muni- 
cipal art,  science,  and  technical  schools,  there  are  tens 
of  thousands  of  practical  young  workers  who  are  at- 
tending night  classes,  and  obtaining  knowledge  and 
skill  that  not  only  help  them  as  artisans  to  earn  good 
wages  in  the  shops  of  their  own  towns,  but  in  turn  aid 
the  towns  to  maintain  and  to  increase  their  industrial 
prosperity.  These  municipal  schools  are  not  narrow 
in  their  local  specialization,  and  their  facilities  of  in- 
struction as  a  rule  extend  over  a  broad  range  of  scien- 


SOCIAL  ACTIVITIES  OF  BEITISH  TOWNS  221 

tific  and  technical  knowledge ;  but  they  also  adapt    CHAP.  vn. 
themselves  with  a  commendable  elasticity  to  the  ac- 

*  Adaptation 

tual  trade  position  of  their  own  districts — whether     of  schools 

.  to  local 

ship-building  or  metal- working,  pottery,  decoration    industries. 
or  the  brewing  of  beer,  cloth-weaving,  the  refining  of 
sugar,  or  the  manufacture  of  chemicals.     The  elemen- 
tary schools  encourage  their  pupils  to  continue  their 
studies  in  night  classes,  and  the  municipal  authorities 
intervene  to  help  the  growing  lad  to  adjust  himself  in 
the  environing  industrial  society.    This  new  field  of  n^!cheme 
municipal  activity  has,  evidently,  an  important  future  of,jn  ^cial 
in  the  British  towns.     There  are  single  manufactur-       tion-" 
ing  centers  where  from  fifteen  to  twenty  thousand 
pupils,  who  are  nearly  all  young  artisans  and  ap- 
prentices, are  attending  the  evening  technical  and 
applied-art  classes  under  the  auspices  of  the  munici- 
pal government.     This  is  a  new  development  of  the 
highest  significance.    England  now  believes  that  she 
has  found  in  technical  education  the  best  form  of 
"protection"  for  her  industries. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON 


London  the 


METROPOLITAN  London,  the  greatest  and  most 
enlightened  city  this  world  has  ever  seen,  has 
never  had  a  legal  existence,  a  fixed  boundary  line,  or 
a  municipal  government.  For  limited  purposes  the 
metropolis,  metropolis  became  in  1889  an  administrative  county, 
and  acquired  a  representative  council;  but  previous 
to  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888,  which  gives  all 
the  counties  of  England  elective  councils,  the  me- 
tropolis had  no  distinct  organization  or  corporate 

form.    London,  the  ancient  city,  had  retained  its  old- 
London  the  7  * 7 
ancient  city,  time  bounds  and  its  venerable  charters ;  but  its  area 

was  only  one  square  mile  and  its  resident  popula- 
tion was  less  than  forty  thousand,  while  metropoli- 
tan London  had  attained  a  population  more  than  a 
hundred  times  as  large,  spread  over  an  area  of  at  least 
a  hundred  square  miles,  and  Greater  London  lay  in 
the  three  counties  of  Middlesex,  Kent,  and  Surrey, 
with  huge  suburbs  in  Essex  and  encroaching  outposts 
in  Hertfordshire,  including,  altogether,  from  five  hun- 
dred to  a  thousand  square  miles,  with  a  population  of 
six  millions  or  more.  It  was  governed  in  the  most 
anomalous  manner  by  Parliament  directly  as  an  inter- 
posing providence,  by  the  ministers  of  the  Crown,  by 
the  magistrates  of  the  several  counties,  by  special 
boards  and  commissions,  and  by  many  scores  of  parish 
vestries  and  other  minor  local  authorities.  The  acts 


"Greater 
London." 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON 


223 


London's 
governing 
arrange- 
ments. 


Its  munici- 
pal evolu- 
tion. 


of  Parliament  that  affected  one  feature  or  another  of  CHAP.  VIIL 
the  administration  in  whole  or  in  part  of  the  metro- 
politan area  were  legion,  and  were  scattered  through 
the  statute-books  of  centuries.  Truly  this  great  ag- 
gregation of  people  and  interests  had  a  perplexingly 
intricate  organization.  But  still  it  was  somehow  gov- 
erned. Its  vast  expanding  life  as  one  social,  commer- 
cial, and  industrial  entity  found  its  organs. 

How  London  has  been  governed  in  the  past,  how  it 
is  governed  at  present,  how  it  is  meeting  the  various 
social  and  economic  problems  of  modern  metropolitan 
life  —  these  are  questions  eminently  worthy  of  con- 
sideration by  all  who  would  study  municipal  matters. 
For  London  is  the  capital  not  only  of  the  British  em- 
pire, but  in  some  sense  also  of  the  whole  world.  Its 
experiences  are  of  universal  interest  and  importance. 
In  it  the  new  forces  of  urban  life  are  at  work  in  most 
significant  ways.  It  is  slowly  but  surely  evolving  cen- 
tral municipal  institutions  to  meet  its  peculiar  needs. 
Its  population  is  waking  up  with  a  sense  of  unity,  and 
with  a  new  perception  of  great  things  to  be  done 
through  united  municipal  action  for  the  common  wel- 
fare. As  I  have  observed  in  my  introductory  chapter, 
it  is  only  lately  that  the  people  of  advanced  industrial 
nations  have  learned  to  accept  the  fact  that  life  in 
cities  under  artificial  conditions  must  be  the  lot  of  the 
great  majority ;  that  it  is  the  business  of  society  to 
adapt  the  urban  environment  to  the  needs  of  the 
population ;  that  such  life  should  not  be  an  evil  or  a 
misfortune  for  any  class ;  that  there  should  be  such 
sanitary  arrangements  and  administration  as  to  make 
the  death-rate  of  the  city  smaller  than  that  of  the  na- 
tion as  a  whole ;  that  there  should  be  such  educational 
facilities  as  to  insure  to  all  the  young  people  of  a  city 
the  most  suitable  physical,  intellectual,  and  industrial 
training.  The  masses  of  the  people  in  London  are 


The  new 

ideals. 


224 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


The  collec- 
tivist  trend. 


CHAP.  vin.  rising  to  some  comprehension  of  these  truths,  and 
ce°tedci"n  ^7  are  beginning  to  clamor  for  social  and  govern- 
London.  mental  reforms.  The  immediate  future  of  London  is 
fraught  with  magnificent  possibilities.  From  the  ex- 
treme of  chaos,  disorganization,  and  uncontrolled  free- 
dom of  individual  action,  it  is  not  impossible  that  the 
great  metropolis  may  early  in  the  twentieth  century 
lead  all  the  large  cities  of  the  world  in  the  closeness 
and  unity  of  its  organization  and  in  the  range  of  its 
municipal  activities.  Municipal  socialism,  so  called, 
has  a  better  outlook  in  London  even  than  in  Paris  or 
Berlin,  although  as  yet  London  has  given  fewer  tan- 
gible evidences  of  this  trend  than  has  any  other  center 
of  civilization.  However  that  may  be,  the  London 
questions  have  assumed  an  extraordinary  importance 
in  England,  and  to  understand  them  reasonably  well 
it  is  necessary  to  review  and  analyze  with  some  care 
the  government  of  London. 

From  the  benefits  of  a  half -century's  reform  legisla- 
London  ex-  **on>  un(^er  wbich  town  life  and  government  has  flour- 
ctheereform  igne^  elsewhere  throughout  the  United  Kingdom,  Lon- 
don was  almost  wholly  excluded.  To  review  rapidly 
a  movement  already  described  in  these  pages,  the  ever- 
memorable  Reform  Act  of  1832,  which  gave  representa- 
tion in  Parliament  a  modern  and  rational  basis,  was  soon 
followed,  as  a  part  of  the  reform  program  of  the  day,  by 
a  general  municipal  government  act  which  abolished 
the  ancient  and  exclusive  privileges  of  the  merchants' 
and  trades'  guilds,  and  enlarged  the  municipal  corpora- 
tions by  the  inclusion  of  the  whole  body  of  citizens 
/  paying  a  certain  minimum  amount  of  rates.  This  act 
s  of  1835  is  the  most  signally  important  piece  of  legis- 
lation in  all  the  history  of  modern  city  governments. 
Similar  to  it,  and  a  part  of  the  same  general  movement, 
were  the  act  of  1833  reforming  the  Scotch  munici- 
palities, and  that  of  1840  which  rendered  a  like  service 


THE  GOVEENMENT   OF  LONDON 


225 


The  system 
re -outlined. 


to  those  of  Ireland.  Apart  from  minor  differences  in  CHAP.  vm. 
the  three  acts,  this  legislation  gave  a  uniform  frame- 
work of  municipal  government  to  practically  all  the 
large  towns  and  cities  of  the  United  Kingdom.  It 
preserved  the  old-time  government  by  mayors,  alder- 
men, and  councilors,  while  doing  away  with  close  cor- 
porations and  throwing  open  the  municipal  franchise 
to  the  new  classes  of  electors  who  had  received  the 
borough  parliamentary  franchise  in  the  reform  of 
1832,  the  councilors  becoming  the  direct  representa- 
tives of  the  burgesses  or  citizens.  Half  a  century 
witnessed  much  additional  legislation,  which  was  em- 
bodied in  the  great  municipal  government  consolida- 
tion act  of  1882 ;  but  the  general  plan  of  1835  remains 
unchanged  because  experience  has  given  it  the  stamp 
of  thorough  approval. 

But  London  was  excluded  from  the  operation  of 
this  act  that  gave  healthy  and  popular  representation 
to  all  the  other  large  communities  of  England.  The 
situation  of  London  was  exceptional,  and  Lord  Rus- 
sell announced  that  its  reform  must  be  made  the  sub- 
ject of  a  separate  act.  For  more  than  fifty  years  that 
promised  reconstruction  and  modernization  of  Lon- 
don government  has  been  awaited  in  vain,  except  in 
so  far  as  various  special  enactments  are  to  be  regarded 
as  advance  instalments  of  reform — the  new  adminis- 
trative county  government  being  a  very  substantial 
instalment. 

The  conditions  of  medieval  town  life  seem  to  have 
been  fairly  well  met  by  a  local  government  that  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  organized  mercantile  and  trade 
bodies — the  associations  of  burgesses  who  secured 
the  old  borough  charters  and  revived  the  local  liber- 
ties that  had  languished  under  feudal  tyranny.  But 
when  in  the  later  days  the  organization  of  industry 
was  revolutionized,  and  the  towns  were  growing  at 

I.- 15 


Neglected 
London. 


The  olden 
guilds. 


226  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  viii.  an  unprecedented  rate  under  the  new  forces  of  modern 
life,  the  government  by  the  self -perpetuating  guilds  be- 
came totally  obsolete  and  inadequate.  The  guilds  had 
remained  as  close  corporations  with  their  old  names 
and  old  privileges,  but  they  included  few,  sometimes 
none,  of  the  actual  working  members  of  the  trades 
whose  names  they  bore,  and  they  had  no  longer  any 
relation  to  the  industrial  life,  nor  were  they  in  any 
sense  representative  of  the  community  at  large.  In 
short,  their  pretenses  to  exclusive  governmental  au- 
thority had  become  absurd  and  intolerable.  Elsewhere 
they  were  disbanded  and  their  accumulated  estates 
were  applied  to  public  objects,  or  else  they  survived 

survival  of    merely  as  social  or  mutual-benefit  clubs ;  but  in  the 

'London8"1  City  of  London  they  held  their  ground,  and  they  re- 
main to-day,  their  authority  being  only  slightly 
diminished. 

Let  us  examine  briefly  the  survival  of  old-time  mu- 
nicipal government  as  it  exists  within  the  narrow 
bounds  of  London  proper,  before  passing  t.o  the  dis- 

The  eighty    cussion  of  the  great  metropolis  that  has  overflown  the 

Livery  ~  * 

companies."  limits  of  the  old  City  walls.  There  are  nearly  eighty 
of  the  so-called  City  companies,  these  being  the  sur- 
vivors of  the  medieval  guilds.  They  are  commonly 
known  as  the  Livery  Companies,  because  on  occasions 
of  ceremony  their  members  of  the  higher  grade  wear 
,  distinctive  garbs  that  date  from  the  reign  of  Edward 

Twelve  chief  .  .  ° 

guilds.  HI.  The  twelve  principal  companies,  in  the  order  of 
precedence,  are  the  Mercers,  Grocers,  Drapers,  Fish- 
mongers, Goldsmiths,  Skinners,  Merchant  Taylors, 
Haberdashers,  Salters,  Ironmongers,  Vintners,  and 
Clothworkers.  It  might  seem  superfluous  to  give  the 
long  list  of  minor  companies ;  but  each  name  contains 
a  picture  of  the  old  London  life  of  periods  when  nearly 
all  the  reputable  citizens  were  grouped  as  members  of 
these  quaint  callings.  Alphabetically  arranged,  and 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  227 

omitting  the  twelve  already  named,  the  London  com-  CHAP.  vin. 
panics  are:  Apothecaries,  Armourers  and  Braziers, 
Bakers,  Barbers,  Basket  Makers,  Blacksmiths,  Bow-  The  guilds  in 
yers,  Brewers,  Broderers  (Embroiderers),  Butchers,  Border!** 
Carmen,  Carpenters,  Clockmakers,  Coach  and  Coach- 
harness  Makers,  Cooks,  Coopers,  Cordwainers,  Cur- 
riers, Cutlers,  Distillers,  Dyers,  Fanmakers,  Farriers, 
Fellowship  Porters,  Feltmakers,  Fletchers,  Founders, 
Framework  Knitters,  Fruiterers,  Girdlers,  Glass- 
sellers,  Glaziers,  Glovers,  Gold  and  Silver  Wire-draw- 
ers, Gunmakers,  Homers,  Inn-holders,  Joiners,  Lea- 
thersellers,  Loriners,  Makers  of  Playing  Cards,  Masons, 
Musicians,  Needlemakers,  Painters,  Parish  Clerks, 
Pattern  Makers,  Pewterers,  Plasterers,  Plumbers, 
Poulterers,  Saddlers,  Scriveners,  Shipwrights,  Specta- 
cle Makers,  Stationers,  Tallow  Chandlers,  Tinplate 
Workers,  Turners,  Tylers  and  Bricklayers,  Upholders, 
Watermen  and  Lightermen,  Wax  Chandlers,  Weavers, 
Wheelwrights,  Woolmen. 

The  companies  were  originally  designed  to  regulate 
the  callings  whose  names  they  bear,  and  to  benefit  the 
members  and  their  families  in  various  ways.  They 
became  incorporated,  and  at  length  they  assumed  "joint 

i       £   iV  £   xi_       n-i.  A  j      •      •  Membership 

control  or  the  government  or  the  City.  Admission  and  objects, 
to  them  was  by  the  four  methods  of  purchase,  patri- 
mony, apprenticeship,  and  honorary  vote,  all  of  which 
remain  in  vogue,  although  the  apprenticeship  is  now, 
of  course,  a  mere  matter  of  form.  The  guilds  are  so- 
cieties of  gentlemen.  Great  endowments  have  accu- 
mulated from  the  gradual  increase  of  modest  estates 
or  charity  trust  funds  that  were  acquired  by  the  com- 
panies for  the  most  part  several  hundred  years  ago. 

The  aggregate  annual  income  of  the  London  guilds 
is  not  far  from  $5,000,000,  most  of  it  being  derived  from    the  guilds. 
the  rents  of  the  house  property  that  they  own  in  all 
quarters  of  the  metropolis.     They  have  estates  in 


228  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  viii.  many  parts  of  England  also,  and  the  capitalized  value 
of  all  their  holdings  would  probably  far  exceed  $100,- 
000,000.  The  Mercers  and  Drapers  are  the  richest,  with 
incomes  of  $400,000  or  $500,000  each ;  while  the  Gold- 
smiths, Cloth  workers,  and  Fishmongers  are  reputed  to 
be  worth  $250,000  or  $300,000  a  year.  A  number  of 
other  companies  are  very  wealthy,  while  many  of  the 
minor  guilds  have  trifling  incomes.  Half  of  the  com- 
panies have  their  own  halls,  some  of  which  are  among 
the  notable  architectural  survivals  of  the  old-time  Lon- 
don ;  and  most  of  those  which  are  without  their  sepa- 
rate buildings  transact  their  business  at  the  central 
Guildhall.  A  large  number  of  the  original  old  halls 
were  destroyed  in  the  great  fire  of  London.  About 

HOW  their    one  f ourth  of  the  income  of  the  companies  is  derived 

incomes  are 

expended,  from  charitable  trust  property,  and  is  devoted  to  the 
support  of  almshouses,  to  educational  purposes,  and 
to  general  charity.  A  large  part  of  the  remaining 
sums  is  spent  in  lavish  ways,  not  less  than  half  a  million 
dollars  a  year  going  for  banquets  and  entertainments. 
In  many  of  the  companies  the  members  are  paid  sub- 
stantial fees  for  attending  ordinary  meetings.  Mem- 
bership varies  from  a  mere  handful  of  men  in  the 
smallest  companies  to  about  450  in  the  largest,  the 
average  being  not  far  from  100,  and  the  total  mem- 
bership of  the  entire  number  being  in  1894  about  8800, 
as  against  9500  fifty  years  ago. 

The  resident  population   of  the  City  of  London 

The  "City"    proper  was  fifty  thousand  by  the  census  of  1881,  and 

and  its 

population,  thirty-seven  thousand  by  that  of  1891.  The  City  is  a 
business  district,  with  a  day  population  ten  times  as 
great  as  that  which  sleeps  within  its  narrow  limits ; 
and  it  is  entered  every  day  except  Sundays  and  holi- 
days by  more  than  a  million  souls,  most  of  whom  re- 
side in  Greater  London.  The  members  of  the  guilds 
do  not,  of  course,  to  any  extent  live  in  the  City.  But 


THE  GOVEKNMENT  OF  LONDON 


229 


those  who  reside  within  a  radius  of  twenty-five  miles 
are  entitled  to  have  a  part  in  the  City's  government. 
They  vote,  in  one  or  another  of  the  twenty-six  City 
wards,  for  aldermen  and  common  councilors.  Each 
ward  elects  an  alderman  for  life,  and  each  elects  a  num- 
ber of  common  councilors  for  a  one  year's  term,  the 
whole  number  of  common  councilors  being  206.  The 
Lord  Mayor,  aldermen,  and  common  councilors  form 
a  great  court,  or  governing  body,  that  controls  all  the 
affairs  of  the  City.  Recent  legislation  has  made  it 
possible  for  resident  householders  to  assist  in  electing 
councilors  and  aldermen  ;  but  the  affairs  of  the  muni- 
cipal corporation  remain  practically  in  the  hands  of 
the  close  and  self-perpetuating  guilds.  The  Lord 
Mayor — whose  jurisdiction,  it  should  be  understood, 
extends  only  throughout  the  limits  of  the  small, 
inner  City  —  is  chosen  annually  from  the  ranks  of 
the  aldermen.  The  Court  of  Common  Hall — *'.  e.,  the 
entire  body  of  liverymen  of  the  guilds — selects  two 
aldermen  who  have  served  as  sheriff  of  London,  and 
from  these  two  the  group  of  aldermen  designate  one 
to  fill  the  office  of  Lord  Mayor.  Reelection  to  that 
office  is  an  honor  rarely  bestowed.  When  the  year  is 
ended,  the  Lord  Mayor  turns  the  Mansion  House  over 
to  his  successor,  and  continues  to  serve  the  City  as  an 
alderman  who  has  "  passed  the  chair."  Of  the  present 
aldermen  about  half  have  "passed  the  chair," — i.  e., 
have  served  their  year  as  Lord  Mayor, —  and  none  of 
them  has  served  a  second  time.  The  Queen  almost 
invariably  bestows  knighthood  upon  the  Lord  Mayor, 
and  he  emerges  from  his  brief  and  always  exceedingly 
expensive  months  of  lavish  entertaining  in  the  Man- 
sion House  with  the  handle  of  "  Sir  "  to  his  name. 

The  City  corporation,  with  its  headquarters  in  the 
noble  old  Guildhall,  has,  like  the  individual  companies, 
large  estates,  chiefly  in  the  form  of  house  property ; 

I.- 15* 


CHAP.  VIII. 


Government 

of  the 
"  City." 


Practically 

controlledby 

the  guilds. 


The  Lord 
Mayor. 


City  estates 
and  admin- 
istration. 


230  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  viii.  and  it  also  owns  the  great  markets  of  London.  Its  af- 
fairs are  administered  by  committees  of  the  council. 
The  City  proper  has  its  own  separate  police  system,  its 
street  and  drainage  authorities,  its  educational  work, 
and  its  various  functions.  Its  liverymen,  besides  vot- 
ing for  members  of  Parliament  in  the  districts  where 
they  actually  live,  assist  in  electing  two  members  for 
the  City  of  London.  It  is  not  to  be  disputed  that  the 
A  riviie  ed  corP°rati°n  °f  London,  with  its  constituent  guilds, 
monopoly,  has  become  a  great  privileged  monopoly,  held  together 
by  the  powerful  but  selfish  interest  of  some  nine  thou- 
sand influential  men.  It  was,  perhaps,  in  1873  that 
Mr.  Gladstone  in  a  speech  at  Nottingham  declared  that 
the  London  guilds  must  be  reformed,  and  their  great 
sums  of  money  devoted  to  public  purposes.  Previous 
to  that  utterance  the  liverymen  were  to  a  considerable 
extent  Liberal  in  politics,  but  since  then  they  have  be- 
come almost  unanimously  Conservative.  In  1880  a 
parliamentary  commission  was  appointed  to  inquire 
into  the  history,  status,  and  revenues  of  the  London 
companies ;  and  its  voluminous  report,  published  in 
1884,  is  marvelously  interesting.  This  commission, 
composed  of  men  of  the  highest  weight  and  authority, 
advised  the  reform  of  the  guilds  by  law,  and  the 
application  of  their  properties  to  public  uses. 

Recent  years  have  witnessed  on  the  part  of  the  work- 
ing-men and  the  Liberals  of  Greater  London  a  series 
of  determined  assaults  upon  the  companies;  but  as 
yet  there  has  been  no  result  except  a  marked  change 
jn  the  conduct  of  these  societies.  They  have  begun  to 

in  public  "  ° 

spirit.  make  a  large  use  of  their  funds  for  the  purchase  of 
parks  and  open  spaces  in  and  about  the  great  metrop- 
olis, and  for  the  endowment  of  technical  and  general 
education,  principally  in  London,  but  also  in  other 
parts  of  the  British  Islands.  The  "  City  and  Guilds  of 
London  Institute,"  endowed  by  a  number  of  the  com- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  231 

parries,  supports  great  central  institutions  for  techni-  CHAP.  vin. 
cal  education,  and  it  grants  subsidies  to  night  classes 
in  the  practical  trades  throughout  the  United  King- 
dom. Two  or  three  of  the  companies  are  contributing 
heavily  to  the  maintenance  of  polytechnic  institutes 
and  "  people's  palaces  "  for  the  young  working-folk  of 
London. 

Sooner  or  later  the  guilds  will  be  obliged  to  sur- 
render their  political  and  municipal  privileges,  and 
public  opinion  will  compel  them  to  account  openly  ^s^y^tl 
for  their  funds.  Possibly  their  endowments  may  be  g»'Ws- 
construed  by  Parliament  as  public  trusts,  and  devoted 
by  law,  after  the  analogy  of  the  old  London  parochial 
charity  endowments,  to  the  promotion  of  the  general 
welfare  of  the  metropolitan  masses.  However  that 
may  be,  the  county  council,  as  the  representative  of 
the  aroused  and  gradually  centralizing  municipal  life 
of  the  greater  London,  will  eventually  undermine  the 
venerable  charters  and  privileges  of  the  City,  and  will 
reduce  the  central  district  to  the  status  of  one  of  a 
series  of  subordinate  parts  of  an  inclusive  municipal 
corporation.  This  survival  of  the  unreformed  medi- 
eval borough  will  pass  away  within  a  few  years;  and 
those  who  have  never  seen  a  Lord  Mayor's  show  on 
the  ninth  of  November  should  not  postpone  the  sight 
too  long. 

But  we  must  turn  from  this  anomaly,  this  fossilized 
relic  of  medievalism,  to  the  vast  modern  city  in  which    The  expan- 
it  is  embedded.   What  are  the  bounds  of  Greater  Lon-     London, 
don?    There  are  a  hundred  or  more  diminutive  old 
parishes  within  the  area  of  the  City  —  the  inner  tech- 
nical London.     Outside  this  center,  parish  after  par- 
ish has  been  invaded  by  the  steadily  extending  rows 
of  brick  houses  and  the  metropolitan  street  system. 
At  least  a  hundred  thousand  people  are  added  every 
year  to  this  great  aggregation  that  we  popularly  call 


232  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  viii.  London.  One  may  go  east  or  north  or  south  or  west 
from  Charing  Cross,  and  almost  despair  of  ever  reach- 
ing the  rim  of  the  metropolis.  In  fact,  at  the  time  of 
the  reform  acts,  the  urban  district  had  confessedly 
grown  beyond  all  knowledge  and  control.  It  covered 

The  parishes  scores  of  parishes,  each  of  which  was  governed  upon 
men.  ancient  rural  lines  by  an  elected  board  of  vestrymen, 
whose  business  it  was  to  provide  for  street-making, 
paving,  drainage,  public  lighting,  and  other  concerns, 
and  to  levy  the  rates  wherewith  to  pay  the  cost  of 
parochial  government.  No  two  parishes  were  gov- 
erned exactly  alike.  There  was  little  or  no  account- 
ability on  the  part  of  local  officers.  No  interest  was 
taken  in  the  election  of  vestrymen.  One  parish  knew 
nothing  about  the  affairs  of  another.  The  West  End 
parishes  knew  less  about  those  of  East  London  than 
they  knew  about  Calcutta  or  Hong  Kong.  Within  the 
continuously  built  area  there  were  several  hundred 
separate  local  authorities.  Scores  of  old  villages  had 
been  swallowed  up  by  the  ever-encroaching  metropo- 
lis, and  rural  conditions  had  given  place  to  those  of 
urban  life. 

There  was  a  certain  unmistakable  organic  unity  in 
the  metropolis;  yet  no  political  organization  corre- 
sponding to  that  unity  had  been  effected.  Numerous 
affairs  essentially  important  called  for  united  action. 
But  the  absence  of  central  agencies  left  the  city  to 

trai  orgaCn"  grow  of  itself,  without  regulation  and  without  intel- 
ligent plans.  When  the  vast  developments  of  modern 
industry  and  commerce  began  fairly  to  appear,  the 
necessity  for  measures  recognizing  the  metropolis  as 
a  whole  became  absolutely  imperative.  Fortunately, 
Parliament  could  be  appealed  to  in  cases  of  dire  emer- 
gency; and  the  British  Parliament  may  indeed  be 
said  to  have  been  the  governing  body  of  London  from 
the  moment  when  it  began  to  be  regarded  as  some- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  233 

thing  more  than  a  network  of  contiguous  parishes  CHAP.  vm. 
covered  with  houses. 

The  earliest  recognition  of  the  unity  of  London 
was  shown  by  the  general  government  in  its  provision 
for  the  registry  of  vital  statistics.  London,  according  The  London 
to  the  Registrar-General,  was  not  merely  the  ancient   trar's  office. 
City,  but  the  larger  populated  district.     The  old  so- 
called  bills  of  mortality,  dating  from  the  plague  of 
1592,  prior  to  which  deaths  were  not  officially  re- 
corded, were  from  time  to  time  extended  to  include 
larger  areas  as  the  outside  population  grew.    In  1838 
this  wider  area  came  to  be  definitely  known  as  the 
Registrar- General's  District.    It  then  contained  44,816 
acres,  or  just  seventy  square  miles.     It  was  afterward 
extended  several  times,  but  for  many  years  it  has  re- 
mained fixed  at  74,692  acres,  or  about  122  square 
miles.     This  district  is  practically  identical  with  that 
which  was  adopted  as  the  metropolis  in  1855  for  the  The  London 
purposes  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works,  and     of  works. 
which  was  adopted  again  in  1870  as  the  sphere  within 
which  the  newly  formed  "  school-board  for  London  n      bond, 
should  operate.     And  it  has  now,  by  the  law  which 
became  operative  early  in  1889,  and  which  detaches 
its  parts  from  the  counties  of  Middlesex,  Kent,  and 

.  7  The  bounds 

burrey,  been  erected  into  a  separate  administrative    of  the  new 

m,       T         ,  , .  .  county  of 

county.     The  London  county  line  sweeps  in  an  extra     London. 
hamlet  at  one  point,  however,  which  gives  it  a  total 
extent  of  75,442  acres,  or  123  square  miles.  This,  then, 
must  be  taken  as  the  present  official  limit  of  metro- 
politan London.     The  London  of  the  metropolitan   "Pariiamen- 
parliamentary  boroughs   has   until  very  lately  re-       don." 
mained  an  area  nearly  identical  with  the  seventy 
square  miles  of  the  reform  period ;  but  it  now  includes 
125£  square  miles,  and  is  therefore  a  little  larger  than 
the  new  county,  the  boundaries  being  mainly  identical. 
But  the  Central  Criminal  Court  District,  which  is     London." 


234 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VIII. 


"  Police 
London." 


"Greater 
London." 


London's 
population. 


regarded  as  another  of  the  London  boundaries,  com- 
prises more  than  268,000  acres,  or  420  square  miles. 

Finally,  the  Metropolitan  Police  District  contains 
440,891  acres  or  690  square  miles,  and  includes  all 
the  parishes  within  a  radius  of  15  miles  from  Charing 
Cross.  As  an  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
urban  population  has  filled  up  what  were  once  rural 
neighborhoods,  it  is  interesting  to  note  the  fact  that 
within  this  Metropolitan  Police  District,  besides  the 
City  proper,  there  are  fifty-three  parishes  of  the  county 
of  Middlesex,  thirty-five  of  Surrey,  eighteen  of  Kent, 
fourteen  of  Essex,  and  ten  of  Hertfordshire.  This 
district  is  now  called  "  Greater  London,"  in  distinc- 
tion from  the  metropolis,  in  the  weekly  returns  of  the 
Registrar-General.  The  multiplicity  of  boundaries  is 
somewhat  confusing.  But  henceforth  London,  or  the 
metropolis,  will  be  commonly  regarded  as  the  county 
area,  and  Greater  London  will  designate  in  a  general 
way  the  whole  urban  population,  most  of  which  is  in- 
cluded in  the  Metropolitan  Police  District.  The  cen- 
sus of  1881  gave  the  City  of  London  50,652  people, 
found  3,834,354  within  the  area  now  known  as  the 
metropolis,  or  the  county  of  London,  and  enumerated 
a  total  of  4,776,661  in  the  Greater  London  of  the 
Metropolitan  Police  District.  The  census  of  1891 
showed  that  the  county  then  included  4,232,118  peo- 
ple, and  that  there  were  within  the  police  circumscrip- 
tion 5,633,000.  The  estimate  of  6,500,000  or  7,000,000 
people  now  living  within  twenty  miles  of  Charing 
Cross  may  not  be  regarded  as  extravagant.  And 
popularly  speaking  these  people  are  all  Londoners. 
"[Intimately  the  official  bounds  of  the  municipality 
will  very  possibly  include  them.  This  larger  area  is 
not  as  yet  densely  peopled,  and  it  will  be  made  to  ac- 
commodate several  millions  more. 

From  about  1805  to  1855,  an  even  half-century, 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  235 

London's  population  had  grown  from  a  round  million  CHAP.  vui. 
to  two  millions  and  a  half.  The  situation  had  become 
almost  intolerable  from  lack  of  central  management,  in  isss. 
The  home  department  of  the  general  government  main- 
tained a  metropolitan  police  force  and  kept  tolerably 
good  order.  Government  commissioners  of  sewers 
also  levied  taxes  upon  the  whole  community,  and  pro- 
vided an  imperfect  sort  of  drainage  system.  Under- 
ground sewers  were  entirely  unknown  in  London 
until  1831,  and  they  were  not  numerous  or  extensive 
in  1855.  Not  a  single  large  underground  main  had 
been  constructed  at  this  last  date.  Such  as  they 
were,  the  sewers  and  drainage  ditches  poured  their 
pollution  directly  into  the  Thames  at  frequent  inter-  Draina  e 
vals  on  both  banks,  and  at  times  the  river  was  so  be-  and  streets. 
fouled  and  clogged  with  filth  that  navigation  was 
obstructed.  The  era  of  modern  trade  and  commerce 
had  set  in,  and  traffic  was  blocked  on  the  streets  for 
lack  of  suitable  central  arteries.  There  was  not  in  all 
London  at  that  time  a  good  pavement,  nor  a  broad 
convenient  thoroughfare.  The  river  was  without  an 
adequate  supply  of  bridges,  and  without  suitable  em- 
bankments and  retaining  walls. 

The  parishes,  of  which  there  were  seventy-eight 
outside  the  City  proper,  and  within  the  Registrar- 
General's  metropolitan  district,  were  attending  in  an 
irregular  way  to  local  concerns,  while  some  parts  of  the 
metropolis  were  "  no-man's  land,"  and  were  without 
any  pretext  of  local  management  whatever.  The  sel-  of  the  city. 
fishness  of  the  fossilized  City  corporation  was  egregi- 
ous. It  never  at  any  time  tried  to  extend  its  govern- 
ment so  as  to  include  the  huge  outlying  population ; 
nor  would  it  consent  to  any  reasonable  scheme  for 
the  incorporation  of  the  Greater  London.  Either  pro- 
ceeding would  have  swamped  this  inner  sanctuary 
of  monopoly  and  exclusive  privilege.  The  outsiders 


236  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 

CHAP.  viii.  were  too  disorganized  to  act  together.  Moreover,  too 
many  of  their  influential  fellow-citizens  were  mem- 
bers of  one  or  another  of  the  city  companies.  And 
so  reform  dragged. 

A  great  beginning,  however,  was  made  in  the  year 
1855.  In  lieu  of  the  complete  reform  and  muuici- 
palization  of  the  overgrown  city,  Parliament  enacted 


Management        ,,,  •  i  ,1       •*••   ,  •<•-**• 

Act  of  1855.  what  has  since  been  known  as  the  Metropolis  Man- 
agement Act.  This  act  contained  the  rudiments  of  a 
municipal  constitution.  It  divided  the  area  outside 
the  City  proper  into  thirty-eight  districts,  following 
parish  lines  and  uniting  small  parishes  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  act.  Twenty-three  parishes  were  re- 
garded as  large  and  populous  enough  to  stand  singly, 

Rearrange-    and  fifty-five  smaller  ones  were  grouped  into  fifteen 

ment  of  local  rf  °          r 

divisions,  districts.  To  these  thirty-eight  districts  were  con- 
firmed, under  a  somewhat  more  uniform  system,  the 
local  functions  that  the  parishes  had  always  exer- 
cised —  these  including  local  sewerage,  street-making 
and  paving,  street-lighting,  sanitary  administration, 
and  some  other  minor  matters,  to  which  additions 
have  been  made  by  subsequent  enactments.  The 
principal  purpose  of  the  act,  however,  was  to  create 
a  central  authority.  This  body  was  called  the  Metro- 
politan Board  of  "Works.  Each  parish  or  district  was 
central  governed  by  an  elective  board,  called  in  the  single  par- 
works0  ishes  the  Vestry,  and  in  the  consolidated  areas  enti- 
tled the  District  Board  ;  and  these  bodies  were  chosen 
by  all  ratepayers  who  were  taxed  for  the  care  of  the 
poor  on  a  rental  value  of  $200  a  year.  The  vestries 
and  district  boards  varied  in  size  according  to  the 
population  of  the  area,  the  average  being  about  75, 
and  the  whole  number  of  these  local  representatives 
being  about  3000.  Each  district  board  or  vestry  was 

A  body  of  * 

delegates,     authorized  to  send  a  representative  to  the  Metropoli- 
tan Board  of  Works,  and  the  corporation  of  the  City 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON 


237 


of  London  was  given  three  members.  Subsequently 
the  board  was  enlarged,  and  the  greater  districts  or 
parishes  were  accorded  two  or  three  delegates,  mak- 
ing a  central  body* of  about  sixty  members  in  all. 

These  thirty-eight  parishes  and  districts  remain  to- 
day in  possession  of  their  functions  as  constituted  in 
1855.  The  Metropolitan  Board  of  "Works  survived 
until  April,  1889,  when  it  was  superseded  by  the  new 
County  Council,  which  I  shall  take  further  occasion 
to  describe.  The  central  improvements  of  London 
for  the  period  from  1855  to  1889,  enormous  as  they 
had  been  in  the  aggregate,  were  the  work  of  the  met- 
ropolitan board.  Its  first  and  most  imperative  task 
was  the  creation  of  a  system  of  main  sewers.  Obvi- 
ously the  petty  parish  vestries  could  undertake  no 
such  work.  Then  it  became  the  board's  duty  to  im- 
prove systematically  the  main  thoroughfares.  The 
river  banks,  the  Thames  bridges,  the  paramount  prob- 
lem of  parks  and  open  spaces,  the  problems  of  over- 
crowding and  insanitary  houses,  and  numerous  lesser 
matters,  came  under  the  board's  jurisdiction.  Its 
rounded  generation  of  active  work  resulted  in  vast 
improvements.  London  was  chaos  when  the  board 
found  it.  It  had  many  of  the  appointments  of  a  mod- 
ern metropolis,  and  was  well  advanced  toward  the 
assumption  of  a  fully  organized  municipal  life,  when 
the  metropolitan  board  gave  way  to  its  successor. 

Before  taking  up  the  specific  departments  of  the 
board's  work,  and  the  whole  subject  of  London's  mu- 
nicipal appointments  and  public  services,  it  will  be 
well  to  continue  further  the  discussion  of  the  govern- 
mental machinery.  The  metropolitan  board  accom- 
plished a  great  work,  but  in  its  latter  years  its  ad- 
ministration was  honeycombed  with  scandals.  Its 
indirect  election  removed  it  from  the  people.  There 
was  no  interest  in  its  personnel,  and  its  members  were 


CHAP.  VIII. 


Career  of  the 
metropoli- 
tan board. 


A  series  of 

great 
achieve- 
ments. 


Faults  of  the 
metropoli- 
tan board. 


238  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  vin.  for  the  most  part  obscure.  The  London  public  knew 
astonishingly  little  about  it.  It  was  the  creature  of 
Vestries. ™  the  vestries,  and  these  vestry  local  governments  had 
not  themselves  been  successful.  Tne  vestries  and  the 
district  boards  were  practically  unaccountable.  The 
ratepayers,  at  least  until  very  recently,  have  almost 
utterly  ignored  the  election  of  vestrymen.  The  levy- 
ing of  rates  has  been  most  various  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  metropolis.  There  has  been  much  incom- 
petency,  in  some  cases  much  extravagance,  at  times 
great  niggardliness,  and  often  much  lack  of  wisdom 
in  the  making  of  such  public  improvements  as  have 
come  within  the  sphere  of  the  parishes  and  districts. 
Numerous  attempts  have  been  made  to  build  further 
upon  the  foundation  laid  in  1855,  and  to  secure  a  full- 
various  at-  wrought  municipal  government  for  London.  A  select 
erect  a  great  committee  of  Parliament  reported  in  1861  in  favor  of 
ity.  the  direct  election  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works 
by  the  ratepayers,  with  a  view  to  transforming  it 
into  a  regular  municipal  common  council.  And  about 
once  in  four  or  five  years  ever  since  1855  some  cabinet 
minister  or  prominent  member  of  the  House  has 
brought  in  a  bill  to  create  a  central  elective  council, 
and  to  supersede  the  vestries  by  newly  constituted 
local  areas  with  subordinate  councils.  Such  bills  were 
introduced  by  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis  in  1860, 
by  John  Stuart  Mill  in  1867,  by  Charles  Buxton  in 
1869-70,  by  Lord  Elcho  in  1875,  by  Mr.  J.  F.  B.  Firth 
in  1880,  and  by  Sir  William  Harcourt  as  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's Home  Secretary  in  1884. 

Sir  William  Harcourt's  important  measure  proposed 
Harcourt's    ^°  create  a  great  central  council  of  240  members,  merg- 
biii.        jng  the  old  city  corporation  in  the  metropolis,  and 
treating  the  inner  City  as  one  of  thirty-nine  admin- 
istrative areas,  but  giving  it  a  large  representation  in 
recognition  of  its  historical  importance  and  its  heavy 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  239 

property  and  commercial  interests.  Among  the  other  CHAP.  vm. 
districts,  representation  was  proportioned  to  popula- 
tion and  wealth.  All  the  authority  possessed  by  the 
old  Board  of  Works,  by  all  the  parish  and  district 
boards,  by  the  authorities  of  the  City  corporation,  and 
by  other  local  functionaries  was  concentrated  in  the 
hands  of  the  new  central  council.  This  body  was  ex- 
pected to  revise  and  consolidate  the  districts,  reducing 
their  number  and  granting  to  each  a  local  district 
council  composed  of  the  members  of  the  central  body 
from  any  given  district,  and  of  other  elected  members. 
These  local  councils  were  to  do  simply  the  things 
delegated  to  them  by  the  higher  authority,  and  were 
to  be  subject  always  to  the  control  of  the  central 
council. 

This  London  proposition  adapted  the  general  mu- 
nicipal system  of  England  to  the  peculiar  conditions 
of  the  metropolis.  The  principle  of  the  English  sys- 
tem is  that  of  "absolute  control  through  a  directly  unity  versus 
elected  authority  of  all  administration  and  of  all  ex-  ment. 
penditure."  This  principle  was  not  in  controversy; 
it  was  accepted  by  all  parties.  But  there  had  long 
been  a  strong  party,  inspired  by  the  liverymen  of 
the  guilds,  and  now  largely  identified  with  the  Con- 
servatives, who  advocated  the  partitioning  of  Lon- 
don into  six,  or  ten,  or  twelve,  or  even  a  greater 
number  of  cities,  and  the  giving  to  each  one  a  sepa- 
rate municipal  government  of  its  own.  The  idea  had 
some  seeming  justification  in  the  fact  of  London's 
vastness,  and  of  certain  traditional  topographic  and 
natural  lines  of  division.  But  the  real  motive  was 
the  effectual  dismemberment  of  the  great  London  that 
threatened  to  assimilate  and  absorb  the  ancient  City, 
and  to  dispossess  its  privileged  beneficiaries. 

What  the  situation  called  for  was  not  a  series  of  dis- 
tinct municipalities,  but  a  sort  of  federalized  municipal 


240 


MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VIII. 


Defeat  of 
London  proj- 
ects in  1880 

and  1884. 


Reform  of 
county  gov- 
ernment. 


Local  Gov- 
ernment Act 
of  1888. 


government.  There  were  great  common  concerns 
which  required  concerted  action  and  vigorous  central 
administration.  The  defeat  of  measures  proposed  in 
1880  and  1884  was  accomplished  by  the  active  opposi- 
tion of  the  guilds,  which  were  accused,  upon  seem- 
ingly reliable  testimony,  of  spending  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars  in  lobbying  and  sham  demon- 
strations, and  which  flooded  Parliament  with  petitions 
containing  thousands  of  fictitious  names.  The  great 
bill  of  1884  contained  the  provisions  of  a  magnificent 
metropolitan  constitution,  and  its  adoption  would  have 
been  of  incalculable  advantage  to  the  millions  of 
Londoners. 

Meanwhile  there  had  been  a  continual  demand  for 
reform  in  the  county  governments  of  England.  These 
governments  had  been  wholly  non-representative.  In 
every  county  a  number  of  gentlemen,  usually  belong- 
ing to  the  landlord  class,  held  the  Queen's  commis- 
sion as  magistrates  or  justices  of  the  peace ;  and  they, 
meeting  four  times  a  year  in  the  so-called  "  quarter- 
sessions,"  levied  the  county  tax,  managed  the  road 
business,  granted  liquor  licenses,  and  attended  to  all 
the  administrative  as  well  as  the  minor  judicial  busi- 
ness of  the  county.  The  great  towns  had  all  acquired 
their  representative  municipal  governments,  and  were 
for  most  ordinary  purposes  detached  from  the  coun- 
ties. It  was  at  length  proposed  that  elective  councils 
on  about  the  same  plan  as  those  of  the  municipalities 
should  be  given  to  the  counties,  with  subordinate  dis- 
trict councils  in  subdivisions  of  the  county.  This 
great  measure  was  brought  forward  by  the  ministry 
in  1888,  and  it  became  a  law  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
parties.  It  was  no  part  of  the  original  intention  of 
this  measure  to  reform  London  administration ;  but 
it  was  found  in  drafting  the  so-called  Local  Govern- 
ment Bill  that  it  would  be  wholly  impracticable  to  in- 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  241 

elude  in  an  elective  government  intended  for  the  great  CHAP.  VIIL 
rural  county  of  Kent  a  million  or  two  of  Londoners 
who  had  overflown  the  extreme  northwestern  corner 
of  the  county;  and  similar  considerations  were  ap-  HowLondon 
plicable  to  Middlesex  and  Surrey.  It  was  found  much  county. 
more  feasible  to  treat  all  the  great  urban  communities 
of  England  as  separate  counties  for  administrative 
purposes.  Thus  London  was  made  a  county,  with  the 
area  of  the  old  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works.  The 
other  cities  of  England  were  already  organized  for 
administrative  work,  but  the  new  "administrative 
county  "  of  London  had  to  be  dealt  with  specifically  in 
the  bill.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  Conservatives, 
who  had  so  strenuously  opposed  the  earlier  plans  for 
a  great  London  municipal  organism,  were  now  the 
men  who  laid  the  solid  framework  for  such  a  struc- 
ture, as  a  mere  incident  in  the  elaboration  of  a  mea- 
sure intended  to  initiate  local  self-government  in  the 
rural  parts  of  England.  When  direct  and  centralized  county  as  a 
self-government  had  been  given  to  the  towns  and  cities  rudiment. 
of  England,  London  was  made  an  exception.  More 
than  fifty  years  later,  when  it  was  no  longer  possible 
to  deny  some  measure  of  local  self-government  to  the 
counties  and  townships  of  rural  England,  London  was 
for  the  first  time  given  an  elective  central  authority. 
If  English  legislation  is  sometimes  in  defiance  of  logi- 
cal symmetry,  it  sooner  or  later  accomplishes  the  de- 
sired results  with  a  practical  wisdom  that  is  rarely 
equaled  in  other  countries. 

The  parishes  and  districts  of  1855,  which  still  re- 
main the  local  government  areas  of  the  metropolis,    oftheLon- 
and  from  whose  vestries  and  boards  the  Metropolitan  } 

Board  of  Works  had  always  been  constituted  as  a 
delegate  body,  were  not  taken  as  the  basis  of  appor- 
tionment for  the  new  county  council.  The  parlia- 
mentary reform  bill  of  1885  had  created  fifty-seven 

I.— 16 


242 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VIII. 


Districts 
and  mem- 
bership. 


Incomplete- 
ness of  the 
act  of  1888. 


Functions  of 

the  county 

council. 


districts  besides  the  City  within  the  metropolitan  area, 
for  the  purpose  of  representation  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons ;  and  these  districts  were  taken  as  the  best  tem- 
porary divisions  for  the  election  of  councilors.  Each 
was  accorded  two  members,  while  the  City  proper  was 
allowed  four;  and  thus  provision  was  made  for  one 
hundred  and  eighteen  members,  to  be  elected  every 
three  years.  The  councilors  were  empowered  to  add 
to  their  body  nineteen  members  having  the  rank  of 
aldermen  and  holding  their  seats  for  six-year  terms, 
but  having  no  different  authority  from  the  ordinary 
members.  They  were  further  to  choose  annually, 
from  their  own  number  or  otherwise,  a  chairman,  a 
vice-chairman,  and  a  deputy  chairman,  thus  bringing 
the  whole  body  up  to  about  one  hundred  and  forty 
members  of  a  metropolitan  parliament. 

The  bill  left  much  to  be  done  in  the  future.  Thus 
the  City  of  London  and  its  functions  remained  prac- 
tically untouched,  and  the  parish  vestries  and  district 
boards  continued  to  exercise  their  accustomed  juris- 
diction in  minor  affairs.  Ultimately,  of  course,  these 
powers  will  all  be  conferred  upon  the  central  county 
council,  in  order  that  it  may  re-delegate  such  author- 
ity as  it  deems  best  to  a  revised  series  of  ward  or  dis- 
trict councils ;  or  else  Parliament  itself  will  ordain  a 
new  and  improved  subdivision  of  London,  and  consti- 
tute minor  councils  with  well-defined  duties  subject 
to  the  county  council.  But,  as  matters  stand,  the 
county  council  is  not  without  an  important  range  of 
authority.  It  supersedes  the  Metropolitan  Board  of 
"Works,  which  had  grown  to  be  an  administrative 
body  of  vast  undertakings.  It  is  also  assigned  certain 
administrative  duties  that  had  formerly  belonged  to 
the  county  justices.  It  is  every  year  demanding  from 
Parliament  very  extensive  additions  to  its  powers,  and 
gains  something  at  almost  every  session.  If  as  yet  it 


THE  GOVEENMENT  OP  LONDON  243 

is  but  a  framework,  it  is  a  substantial  and  enduring  CHAP.  vin. 
one ;  and  it  will,  in  the  very  early  future,  have  become 
the  most  important  municipal  administrative  body  in 
the  world.  It  is  expected  that  it  will  in  time  secure 
an  enlargement  of  the  official  bounds  of  London  to  future." 
include  an  area  perhaps  as  extensive  as  that  of  the 
police  jurisdiction.  Its  members  will  ultimately  sit 
ex  officio  in  reformed  district  councils  for  minor  ad- 
ministrative purposes.  It  will  invade  the  sanctuary 
of  the  inner  City,  and  destroy  its  "flummery"  and  an- 
cient traditions  so  far  as  they  carry  with  them  peculiar 
immunities  and  privileges.  It  will  take  in  hand,  one 
after  another,  great  public  works,  and  will  make  Lon- 
don a  fitting  place  for  its  people  to  live  in,  and  a  con- 
venient place  for  the  vast  world  commerce  that  centers 
there. 

Henceforth,  then,  the  government  of  London  will 
be  that  of  the  county  council,  which  will  gradually  ab- 
sorb the  authority  now  belonging  to  obscure  parish 
authorities,  and  will  acquire  very  much  of  the  juris- 
diction now  and  heretofore  exercised  directly  by  de- 
partments or  bureaus  of  the  imperial  government. 
The  full  development  of  that  government  is  only  a 
question  of  time.  Nobody  doubts  what  its  form  and 
principle  will  be.  The  absolute  control  of  municipal 
affairs  by  one  central  elective  body,  representing  the 
masses  of  the  citizens,  will  be  the  permanent  and  final  The  British 
government  of  this  chief  of  urban  communities.  Such  kct  mu^d- 
is  the  British  ideal  of  a  perfect  municipal  government.  pamente.r" 
All  administrative  and  appointive  power  will  be  vested 
in  the  council.  It  will  work  through  standing  com- 
mittees, each  committee  supervising  some  branch  of 
business  or  administration,  at  the  head  of  which  will  be 
a  skilled  executive  officer  appointed  upon  his  merits. 

London's  new  county  government  rests  upon  a 
franchise  so  popular  that  theoretically  nobody  who 


244 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


The  fran- 
chise in 
London. 


Eligibility 
for  the  coun- 
cil. 


CHAP.  viii.  would  care  to  vote  is  excluded.  In  the  first  place,  all 
householders  are  enfranchised ;  and  this  includes  every 
man  who  rents  a  place  for  his  family,  even  if  it  be 
only  a  small  room  in  the  garret  or  the  cellar  of  a  tene- 
ment-house. It  also  includes  those  who  live  within 
fifteen  miles  of  the  metropolis,  but  who  for  any  pur- 
pose own  or  occupy  metropolitan  quarters  worth  a  cer- 
tain very  limited  rental.  Owners  of  freehold  property 
in  London,  no  matter  where  they  live,  if  British  sub- 
jects, are  entitled  to  vote.  Widows  and  unmarried 
women  who  are  householders,  or  occupiers  or  owners  of 
property,  are  also  authorized  to  vote  for  county  coun- 
cilors. The  principal  basis  of  the  franchise  is  the 
household ;  and  the  chief  disqualifications  are  receipt 
of  public  alms  and  failure  to  pay  rates  that  have  fallen 
due.  Any  male  resident  of  the  metropolis  or  vicinity 
who  is  entitled  to  vote  is  eligible  to  election.  Further- 
more, any  British  subject  who  owns  land  in  London 
or  who  is  possessed  of  a  certain  amount  of  property, 
no  matter  where  he  lives,  may  be  chosen  a  councilor 
of  the  county  of  London.  The  fact  of  residence  in 
one  district  does  not  disqualify,  either  in  law  or  in  the 
popular  judgment,  for  candidacy  in  another  district. 
Thus  the  first  council,  elected  in  January,  1889, 
from  fifty-seven  districts  besides  the  City,  was  consti- 
tuted in  utter  disregard  of  the  precise  residence  of 
members.  The  successful  candidates  in  East  or  South 

Residence  in  London  districts  were  in  many  instances  prominent 

adistrictnot  .  "  .  * 

required,  men  who  lived  in  the  West  End  or  in  rural  suburbs. 
If  it  were  the  English  fashion,  as  it  is  the  American, 
to  elect  as  representatives  of  a  ward  or  district  only 
men  who  lived  in  that  ward  or  district  for  the  general 
duties  of  a  municipal  council,  the  district  or  ward 
plan  would  be  given  up  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  coun- 
cilors would  be  elected  upon  a  general  ticket  by  the 
whole  city ;  for  the  strict  ward  plan  can  never  result 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  245 

in  a  representative  body  of  the  best  type.    But  no-  CHAP.  VHI. 
where  in  England  is  residence  in  a  ward  deemed  a 
necessary  qualification. 

Great  interest  was  shown  in  the  election  of  the    Mechanism 

ofnomma- 

first  council.  The  machinery  of  nomination  and  elec-  tion. 
tion  was  borrowed  from  the  general  municipal  and 
parliamentary  systems  in  vogue  throughout  the  coun- 
try. Thus,  it  being  desired  that  John  Burns  should 
be  a  candidate  for  the  Battersea  district,  it  was  only 
necessary  for  purposes  of  a  valid  nomination  that  a 
blank  should  be  filled  out  with  John  Burns's  name, 
residence,  and  calling,  and  the  name  of  the  district; 
that  it  should  be  signed  by  a  "  proposer/'  a  "  seconder," 
and  eight  other  resident  voters ;  and  that  it  be  filed 
with  the  county's  returning  officer  at  least  six  days 
before  the  date  of  the  election.  An  unlimited  num- 
ber of  such  nominations  may  be  filed.  The  names 
are  announced,  and  opportunity  is  given  for  can- 
didates to  withdraw  if  they  choose.  Four  days  before 
the  election  the  revised  lists  of  candidates  in  all  the 
districts  are  posted  up  conspicuously.  The  Australian 
system  of  secret  voting  has  long  been  in  vogue  in 
England,  and  the  government  provides  the  ballot- 
papers.  Nobody  may  be  voted  for  except  those  who 
have  been  duly  nominated  in  the  manner  specified 
above. 

Since  two  councilors  are  elected  from  each  of  the 
London  districts,  the  nomination  is  equivalent  to  an 

.  The  election 

election  when  only  two  candidates  are  presented.  In 
the  case  of  Battersea,  for  example,  there  were  six 
nominations,  and  therefore  six  names  appeared  on 
the  ballot-paper.  The  voter  marked  two  names,  and 
the  two  candidates  who  received  the  highest  num- 
ber of  votes  were  elected.  The  candidates  averaged 
about  five  in  each  district,  one  having  eight.  In  only 
one  was  there  no  contest:  in  St.  George,  Hanover 

I.  — 16* 


246 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VIII. 


Safeguards 
against  cor- 
rupt and  lav- 
ish expendi- 
ture. 


Ability  and 
distinction 
of  coun- 
cilors. 


Square,  Colonel  Howard- Vincent  and  Mr.  Antrobus 
were  the  only  nominees,  and  no  election  was  held.  In 
future  elections  it  will  doubtless  happen  in  numerous 
districts  that  the  incumbents  will  be  returned  without 
opposition,  as  is  the  custom  to  a  great  extent  in  muni- 
cipal elections  throughout  Great  Britain. 

All  the  stringent  regulations  against  the  lavish  and 
corrupt  use  of  money  that  have  proved  so  salutary 
in  purifying  English  parliamentary  elections,  have 
been  made  applicable  to  the  election  of  London  coun- 
cilors. Under  no  circumstances  may  the  election  ex- 
penses of  a  councilor  aggregate  more  than  twenty-five 
pounds  ($125),  except  that  an  additional  threepence  is 
allowed  for  each  voter  in  the  district  above  the  first 
five  hundred.  All  expenditures  must  be  made  through 
authorized  agents,  and  these  must  report  the  items  to 
the  candidate,  who  within  a  month  must  render  a 
complete  return  of  expenses  incurred  in  his  election. 
No  payments  may  be  made  on  behalf  of  any  candidate 
for  conveyance  of  voters,  for  bands  of  music  or  parades 
or  other  public  demonstrations,  for  clerks  or  messen- 
gers except  at  the  rate  of  one  employed  person  for 
each  thousand  voters,  nor  for  placards  or  printed  mat- 
ter except  through  a  selected  advertising  agent.  These 
laws  are  construed  strictly,  carry  heavy  penalties,  and 
are  scrupulously  observed. 

This  first  London  council  possessed  as  high  an  aver- 
age of  ability  and  distinction  as  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. Sir  John  Lubbock  and  the  Earl  of  Rosebery 
were  two  of  the  four  members  for  the  City,  and 
such  well-known  men  as  Mr.  Firth,  Mr.  Lawson,  Mr. 
Martineau,  Colonel  Hughes,  Colonel  Howard- Vincent, 
Mr.  Antrobus,  Lord  Monks  well,  Sir  E.  Hanson,  Lord 
Compton,  and  John  Burns  were  in  the  list,  together 
with  many  others  who  had  a  high  local  reputation  for 
character  and  ability.  Two  ladies  were  elected — Lady 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON 


247 


The  first 
aldermen. 


Sandhurst  and  Miss  Jane  Cobden  (now  Mrs.  T.  Fisher  CHAP.  vin. 
Unwin).  Unfortunately,  it  was  after  a  time  decided 
by  the  courts  that  women  were  not  eligible,  and  these 
two  eminently  capable  ladies  had  to  withdraw,  together 
with  another  who  had  been  selected  as  an  alderman. 
The  councilors  added  to  their  number  by  choosing  the 
following  persons  as  aldermen:  Lord  Lingen,  Lord 
Hobhouse,  Quintin  Hogg,  Sir  Thomas  Fairer,  Frederic 
Harrison,  John  Barker,  Edmund  Routledge,  Frank 
Debenham,  S.  S.  Tayler,  Arthur  Arnold,  Hon.  R.  Gros- 
venor,  S.  Hope  Morley,  J.  Eccleston  Gibb,  G.  "W.  E. 
Russell,  the  Earl  of  Meath,  Evan  Spicer,  Mark  Beau- 
foy,  Miss  Cons,  and  the  Rev.  Fleming  Williams.  A 
council  containing  so  much  distinguished  material  and 
approved  political  ability  was  certain  to  have  prestige 
and  success.  The  aristocracy  by  no  means  predomi- 
nated in  this  London  council,  although  it  was  so  liber- 
ally represented.  The  noble  lords  who  held  seats  were 
practical,  popular  men,  with  a  talent  for  affairs,  and 
they  sat  beside  several  scores  of  plain  untitled  citizens 
of  London,  some  of  whom  are  of  as  humble  origin  as 
John  Burns,  the  labor  leader,  but  most  of  whom  are 
men  of  more  than  commonplace  abilities.  It  may  in- 
terest New  York,  Boston,  and  Chicago  readers  to  be 
assured  that  there  were  no  saloon-keepers  or  ward 
bosses  in  this  London  council,  over  which  Lord  Rose- 
bery  presided  as  chairman,  while  the  scientist-states- 
man Sir  John  Lubbock  served  as  vice-chairman,  and 
the  distinguished  London  reformer,  the  late  Mr.  Firth, 
as  deputy  chairman. 

For  the  first  time  in  their  history  the  citizens  of 
metropolitan  London  had  participated  in  the  election 
of  a  central  governing  body.  They  had  been  aroused 
out  of  their  lethargy,  and  had  learned  to  interest  them- 
selves, with  new  hopes  and  new  convictions,  in  the 
welfare  and  progress  of  their  huge  community.  More- 


Lords  and 

working- 
men. 


Effect  upon 
the  public. 


248  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  viii.    over,  for  the  first  time  in  their  history  they  found 

themselves  able  to  follow  intelligibly  the  programs 

Pu™cjty  for  and  policies  that  were  being  devised  for  their  weal  or 

the  first  •  * 

time.  woe.  The  absolute  publicity  of  a  great  municipal  coun- 
cil was  a  revelation  to  them.  The  Metropolitan  Board 
of  Works  had  courted  secrecy  and  mystery  in  all  its 
methods.  The  vestries  had  as  a  rule  conducted  all  their 
affairs  in  ways  obscure  and  inscrutable.  The  average 
Londoner  knew  only  that  he  paid  heavy  rates.  Nobody 
had  ever  acco anted  to  him  for  the  expenditure  of  his 
money.  He  had  heard  that  favoritism  and  jobbery 
were  rampant  in  the  large  financial  operations  of  the 
Board  of  Works,  and  that  the  vestries  and  district 
boards  were  at  least  unbusiness-like  and  haphazard 
in  the  performance  of  their  ill-defined  functions.  He 
knew  that  anomalies  and  manifestly  wrong  conditions 
were  about  him  everywhere.  But  he  had  grown  ac- 
customed to  these  things,  and  had  learned  to  submit, 
because  he  did  not  see  where  to  look  for  remedies. 
With  the  advent  of  the  county  council  —  zealous,  dis- 
Enii  hten  interested,  aggressive,  eager  to  champion  every  right- 
ment  for  the  eous  ref  orm  in  the  affairs  of  the  metropolis  —  all  was 

average  Lon-  .  *    . 

doner.  changed  as  if  by  magic.  At  last  the  plain  citizens  of 
London  had  something  to  rally  about,  viz.,  their  own 
elected  council.  If  their  representatives  in  the  first 
council  had  proved  themselves  unworthy  of  full  con- 
fidence, London's  destined  transformation  would  cer- 
patriotism  tainly  have  been  retarded  for  years.  But  the  council 
council,  rose  to  heights  of  patriotic  service  that  won  even  the 
reluctant  acknowledgments  of  its  enemies;  for  ene- 
mies it  had,  and  very  bitter  ones.  The  London  re- 
formers advocating  a  so-called  progressive  policy 
found  themselves  in  a  large  majority  when  the  ballots 
were  counted ;  and  the  nineteen  aldermen  whom  they 
selected,  and  whose  names  have  just  been  given,  were 
of  that  same  municipal,  economic,  and  political  faith. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  249 

Here,  then,  was  a  body  of  men  irrepressibly  moved  by  CHAP.  vm. 
the  reforming  spirit,  and  determined  to  magnify  their 
offices,  who  had  set  for  themselves  the  task  of  so  using 
their  existing  powers,  and  so  laboring  to  obtain  more 
powers  from  Parliament,  as  to  crystallize  out  of  the 
anti-social  and  chaotic  conditions  that  prevailed  in 
their  great  "province  covered  with  houses"  a  true 

•  Antagonism 

modern  municipality,  with  many  direct  activities  and    of  the  ene- 
many  spheres  of  influence  and  control.    Such  a  body       form. 
must  needs  have  set  in  opposition  against  it  all  the 
privileged  and  selfish  interests  whose  gainful  oppor- 
tunities were  disturbed  or  threatened,  besides  arousing 
the  prejudices  of  those  whose  environment  and  affili- 
ations make  them  apprehensive  of  all  movements  that 
propose  to  tax  the  community  for  the  benefit  of  the 
community. 

At  the  end  of  its  three  years'  work,  the  first  London 
council  had  so  conducted  itself  that  its  friends  could 
say  without  contradiction  that "  through  all  these  years 
of  administrative  labors,  as  complex  and  confusing  as 
ever  fell  to  any  governing  body  in  the  world,  not  one 
breath  of  scandal,  no  shadow  of  a  shade  of  personal 
corruption,  has  attached  to  any  single  member  of  the  and  achieve- 

.,  „      _,,  -i  IT'  ?      •,•<  mentsofthe 

council."  The  members  had  served  without  a  penny  first  council. 
of  reward,  direct  or  indirect ;  yet  many  of  them  had 
given  all  or  most  of  their  time  to  the  municipal  service, 
while  the  whole  body  of  140,  though  composed  of  men 
who  for  the  most  part  had  private  business  or  profes- 
sional duties  that  could  not  be  abandoned,  gave  an 
average  of  one  third  of  their  working  time  —  i.  e.f  two 
whole  days  each  week — to  council  and  committee  meet- 
ings and  labors  connected  with  the  public  affairs  of 
the  metropolis.  It  is  recorded,  not  as  an  exceptional 
illustration  of  county-council  industry,  but  as  a  fairly 
typical  instance,  that  "  in  the  year  1889-90  the  parks 
committee  met  120  times  as  against  twenty  meetings 


250 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


Election  of 

the  second 

council. 


CHAP.  viii.  of  the  similar  body  attached  to  the  Board  of  Works, 
and  in  1890-91  it  met  210  times,  or  ten  times  the 
number  of  the  Board  of  Works'  meetings."  Nor  was 

_  .   ,     .   any  of  the  council's  incessant  work  properly  to  be 

Industry  of  J  *       r       •> 

councilors,  cnticized  as  "  pernicious  activity  " ;  for  it  assumed  its 
various  tasks  with  a  remarkable  intelligence  and  dis- 
cretion, and  apportioned  them  with  excellent  system 
and  comprehension. 

It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  election  of  a 
second  council — which  was  fixed  for  March  5,  1892, 
the  entire  body  (excepting  the  nineteen  aldermen)  re- 
tiring every  three  years  —  would  be  without  an  ex- 
citing campaign.  The  fact  that  in  six  of  the  fifty-eight 
constituencies  there  were  no  contests  showed,  how- 
ever, that  London  might  in  time  settle  down  to  the 
admirable  custom  of  the  provincial  towns,  which,  as  I 
have  shown,  make  it  a  common  practice  to  reelect 
good  councilors  term  after  term  without  any  opposi- 
tion. This  election  of  1892,  which  awakened  so  intense 
an  interest  and  polled  so  heavy  a  vote,  was  not  fought 
strictly  upon  municipal  issues.  A  great  parliamentary 
election  was  expected  soon  to  occur,  and  the  line  that 
separated  Liberals  from  Conservatives  was  just  then 
too  sharply  defined  to  make  it  humanly  possible  that 
politics  should  be  completely  excluded  from  a  muni- 
cipal campaign.  It  so  happened,  however,  that  the 
line  of  cleavage  between  the  great  political  parties 
coincided  in  a  rough  way  with  the  natural  divi- 
sion that  had  taken  place  during  the  previous  three 
years  upon  legitimate  municipal  questions  and  issues. 
Friends  of  sound  municipal  government  in  London, 
who  dread  the  mixing  of  issues  and  the  demoraliza- 
tion that  always  threatens  a  city  when  party  politics 
control  local  government,  did  their  best  to  keep  party 
names  and  party  watchwords  out  of  the  discussions  of 
the  campaign,  and  they  were  measurably  successful. 


Politics  in 

municipal 

affairs. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  251 

They  fought  the  battle  under  the  designations  re-  CHAP.  vni. 
spectively  of  "  Progressives  "  and  "  Moderates."    The 
Progressives  defended  the  general  policies  of  the  re-  ive 
tiring  London  council.     They  stood  for  taxation  re-       ates.'r 
form  which  should  make  the  great  landlords,  and 
holders  of  ground-rents,  pay  their  share  of  municipal 
revenue.    They  stood  for  the  extinction  of  the  rights 
of  the  eight  private  water-companies  that  now  fur- 
nish London  with  an  inferior  and  high-priced  supply 
of  water,  and  for  the  creation  of  a  directly  owned  and 
managed  municipal  supply.    They  stood  for  the  pol-  The  issues  of 

0  .  .  the  cam- 

lCy  of  the  council  in  pressing  measures  for  the  reform       paign. 

of  the  housing  conditions  of  the  poor ;  in  general  for 
an  enlargement  of  the  powers  of  the  county  council 
by  additional  acts  of  Parliament ;  for  an  energizing 
and  uplifting  of  the  public  municipal  life  and  author- 
ity of  London ;  for  a  more  severe  administration  in 
the  general  interests  of  morality  j  and  for  a  variety  of 
those  modern  social  ameliorations  which  Birming- 
ham, Glasgow,  and  other  cities  have  already  secured. 
Now  it  happened  that  the  Liberals  were  for  the  most 
part  thoroughly  committed  to  the  policy  of  the  Pro- 
gressives, while  it  also  happened  that  the  Tories  or 
Conservatives  were  enlisted  as  Moderates  in  the  mu- 
nicipal campaign  —  that  i#  to  say,  they  opposed  what 
they  called  the  extravagant  and  utopian  projects  of  the 
council.  Their  campaign  was  directed  by  the  great 
landlords  who  own  most  of  London,  and  their  allies  opposition. 
were  the  water-companies  and  various  holders  of  pri- 
vate monopolies  of  supply,  the  great  vested  liquor 
interests,  the  proprietors  of  low  music-halls,  and  all 
those  who  found  present  and  past  conditions  to  re- 
dound to  their  own  interest  and  profit.  The  Pro- 
gressives announced  bolder  programs  than  ever, 
aroused  intense  enthusiasm  among  the  working-men, 
and  carried  the  day  triumphantly.  Thus  the  second 


252  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  vin.    council,  elected  to  serve  until  March,  1895,  contained 

84  Progressives  and  34  Moderates.  This  does  not  count 

successor    the  aldermen,  whose  choice,  of  course,  has  been  at  the 

the  Progress- 
ives,       hands  of  the  majority,  though  the  second  council  en- 
deavored to  avoid  the  reproach  of  partisanship  by  se- 
lecting several  Conservatives  when  it  had  to  fill  a 
group  of  aldermanic  vacancies. 

The  ordinary  concerns  of  municipal  life,  as  I  have 
said,  still  remain  for  the  larger  part  in  the  hands  of 
the  parishes  or  the  amalgamated  districts  as  arranged 
in  the  Metropolis  Government  Act  of  1855.  These  are 
in  control  of  paving,  lighting,  sewers,  street-cleaning, 

The  vestries    garbage  disposal,  and  sanitary  inspection,  and  have 

and  their  £  *    i  • 

functions,  many  discretionary  powers  for  usefulness  in  such  re- 
gards as  housing  reform,  baths  and  wash-houses,  free 
libraries,  and  other  enterprises  and  ameliorations  that 
belong  to  the  recognized  work  of  all  the  best  provin- 
cial municipalities.  Of  late,  some  of  these  London 
vestries  have  begun  to  stir  themselves,  under  the  con- 
tagious influence  of  the  county  council's  progressive 
schemes  and  doctrines.  But  most  of  them  have  shown 
themselves  ill  adapted  to  their  tasks.  Why  they  have 
been  so  unresponsive  to  the  demand  for  modern  im- 
provements can  be  explained,  in  part  at  least,  by  a  few 
simple  facts  as  to  their  constitution.  As  compared 
with  the  system  existing  before  1855,  the  present  ar- 
rangement is  the  embodiment  of  order,  lucidity,  and 
effectiveness.  But  when  compared  with  any  really 
symmetrical  and  logical  system,  that  which  now  rami- 

Confusion  of    „        -r         •,          •         t     '      ,    •,      «»•  -j.  &  T.C 

the  system,  fies  London  is  almost  baffling  in  its  confusion.  If, 
however,  we  avoid  its  minor  intricacies  and  confine 
ourselves  to  its  main  outlines,  we  may  hope  to  com- 
prehend it.  There  were  left  as  administrative  or  mu- 
nicipal units  twenty-three  large  parishes,  and  there 
were  grouped  into  fifteen  other  units  seventy-eight 
smaller  parishes.  These  smaller  parishes  retained 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON    .         253 

their  elected  vestries  for  certain  purposes  of  civil  gov-  CHAP.  vui. 
eminent,  but  for  the  purposes  of  various  improve- 
ments each  vestry  was  required  to  elect  its  quota  of  a 
district  board  of  works.   The  dissolution  of  a  group  or 
two  now  leaves  twenty-nine  parish,  vestries  and  thirteen    Forty-two 
district  boards  as  the  forty-two  units  of  ordinary  mu-  ministration. 
nicipal  administration  in  the  metropolis.    Not  to  con- 
cern ourselves  with  the  former  limitations  upon  the 
franchise,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  for  some  years  past 
the  ratepayers  have  all  been  entitled  to  vote  for  mem- 
bers of  the  vestry.     The  vestries  have  been  large 
bodies  composed  of  120  men  in  the  greater  parishes, 
and  they  have  numbered  about  5000  in  the  aggregate 
for  all  London.    Eligibility  to  a  vestry  in  London  had, 
down   to   1894,  been   conditioned   upon   a  property 
qualification  —  or,  rather,  a  ratepaying  qualification    Highprop- 
—  high  enough  to  exclude  working-men.     The  limit      cation. 
remained  at  an  assessed  valuation  of  £40  per  an- 
num.   But  London  working-men  do  not  pay  $200  a 
year  for  house  rent.    Indeed,  many  very  worthy  ones 
do  not  earn  more  than  that  amount.     In  the  great 
parishes  of  London  —  and  these  municipal  divisions 
average  100,000  people,  while  some  of  them  contain  a 
quarter  of  a  million — five  sixths  of  the  men  who  pay 
rates  and  who  would  be  eligible  for  Parliament  or  for    Most  men 
the  county  council,  have  never  been  eligible  for  a  seat  inveftriees.°r 
in  their  own  local  vestry.     Since  they  have  been  in- 
eligible themselves,  they  have  not  been  in  the  habit  of 
exercising  their  right  to  vote.    Moreover,  it  was  never 
convenient  for  them  to  vote ;  for  the  vestry  elections 
had  not  been  conducted  like  other  elections.    One 
third  of  the  places  were  filled  annually,  and  the  busi- 

,  «•«.•»  •  Antiquated 

ness  was  done  in  the  most  antiquated  manner  ima-    method  of 
ginable.    In  a  parish  of,  let  us  say,  200,000  people,  the   vestions.ec 
election  was  usually  nothing  but  a  show  of  hands  at  a 
slimly  attended  meeting.    Frequently  not  one  voter  in 


254 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VIII. 


Virtually  a 
close  corpo- 
ration. 


Wholly  un- 
representa- 
tive. 


A  striking 
coincidence. 


Reform  of 
rural  ves- 
tries. 


a  hundred  was  present.  No  nominations  had  been 
announced  in  advance.  The  meeting  was  held  at  some 
hour  in  the  forenoon  when  working-men  could  not 
leave  thejr  tasks.  The  vestrymen  of  a  parish  under 
these  circumstances  became  virtually  a  close  corpo- 
ration, reelecting  themselves  and  each  other  as  their 
terms  expired.  They  were  small  house-owners  and 
landlords,  local  shopkeepers,  and  men  of  that  caliber. 
They  were  about  as  far  as  possible  from  fairly  repre- 
senting the  sentiments  and  wishes  of  their  great 
municipal  districts,  yet  they  .were  levying  in  the  aggre- 
gate more  than  $10,000,000  a  year  which  they  were 
expending  in  a  more  or  less  unaccountable  fashion 
upon  streets,  sanitary  services,  and  other  branches  of 
ad  ministration. 

It  has  been  mentioned  as  a  curious  fact  that  Lon- 
don's central  municipal  authority  was  created  as  an 
after-thought,  in  the  process  of  working  out  a  mea- 
sure designed  to  give  elective  governments  to  the 
rural  counties  of  England.  It  must  then  be  re- 
corded as  a  striking  coincidence  that  the  practical 
downfall  of  London  vestrydom  should  also  have  been 
accomplished  as  an  incident  in  the  passage  of  a  bill 
providing  primarily  for  real  local  self-government,  on 
pure  democratic  lines,  in  the  rural  parishes  of  Eng- 
land and  Wales.  There  are  fifteen  thousand  parishes 
where  privileged  vestrydom  had  always  been  ram- 
pant, and  the  " squire  and  parson"  had  governed 
as  they  saw  fit.  Mr.  Henry  Fowler,  as  President  of 
the  Local  Government  Board  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  last 
cabinet,  in  1893  introduced  the  "Local  Government 
Bill,  England  and  Wales,"  which  became  a  law  early 
in  1894  after  a  most  protracted  parliamentary  discus- 
sion. This  measure  does  for  the  townships  or  civil 
parishes  of  England  what  the  Municipal  Corporations 
Act  of  1835  did  for  the  large  towns.  It  establishes 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  255 

local  autonomy  upon  a  system  similar  in  many  re-  CHAP.  vra. 
spects  to  that  of  the  township  system  of  the  United 
States,  to  which  so  much  praise  has  always  been  ac- 
corded; and  it  restores  those  rights  of  self-govern- 
ment in  the  small  country  districts  of  England  that 
are  supposed  to  have  been  exercised  in  ancient  Saxon 
days.  It  provides  for  elections  by  ballot,  and  for 
meetings  after  six  o'clock  P.  M.  The  election  of  London  i^ndon  ves- 

tnes  in- 

vestries,  happily  for  the  progress  of  reform  in  the      eluded. 
lagging  metropolis,  was  dealt  with  by  this  bill.    The 
county  council  was  accorded  some  supervision  over 
the  parish  elections,  and  all  the  resident  citizens,  men 

'  Everybody 

and  women,  were  made  eligible  for  election,  while  the  now  eligible, 
voting  list  was  to  include  every  name  found  on  the 
parliamentary  or  the  county-council  rolls.    Moreover, 
the  choice  of  a  parish  council  became  a  real  election,    Baiiotsys- 

r  tern  intro- 

conducted  under  the  balloting  acts  which  regulate  duced. 
parliamentary  and  municipal  elections.  When,  at  a 
parish  meeting  for  the  renewal  of  an  instalment  of 
the  vestry,  a  poll  was  demanded,  it  had  always  been 
held  on  the  following  day  under  conditions  that  pre- 
cluded a  general  participation.  Moreover,  neither  the 
Australian  ballot  system  nor  the  corrupt  practices 
acts  had  been  applicable  in  the  election  of  vestries. 
All  this  was  changed  by  Mr.  Fowler's  great  enact-  Afundamen- 

<*  tal  reform  in 

ment,  and  in  November,  1894,  the  first  election  was  1894- 
held  of  members^of  London's  new  parish  councils. 
Thus,  at  a  stroke,  the  forty  or  more  sub-municipali- 
ties that  were  carrying  on  most  of  the  detailed  work 
of  town  administration  for  the  four  millions  of  dwel- 
lers in  metropolitan  London,  were  reformed  and  mod- 
ernized as  to  their  ruling  bodies. 

Franchise  in 

On  a  former  page l  some  explanation  was  given    election  of 
of  the  British  municipal  franchise  as  compared  with      boards. 
those  for  other  purposes ;  and  it  will  be  remembered 
i  See  pp.  38-46. 


256 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VIII. 


Thirty-one 
poor-law 

districts  in 
London. 


The  system 

of  "plural" 

voting. 


AH  changed 

by  the  act 

of  1894. 


Women  now 

vote  and  are 

eligible. 


that  the  most  complicated  and  by  far  the  least  demo- 
cratic of  all  was  the  franchise  for  the  election  of 
guardians  of  the  poor.  The  system  of  poor-relief 
created  in  1834  arranged  the  whole  country  in  a 
series  of  poor-law  unions,  so  called  because  as  a  rule 
a  number  of  parishes  were  united  to  make  each  poor- 
law  jurisdiction.  There  are  about  650  of  those  unions 
in  England  and  Wales,  and  31  of  them  are  within  the 
limits  of  the  county  of  London.  The  levying  of  poor- 
rates  and  the  dispensing  of  relief  are  in  the  hands, 
for  each  union,  of  a  board  of  guardians,  elected  by 
owners  and  occupiers  of  property;  and  extra  or 
"  plural "  votes  have  been  permitted  on  a  graduated 
basis,  one  vote  being  allowed  for  every  £50  of  as- 
sessed valuation  up  to  a  maximum  of  six  votes.  In 
the  case  of  an  owner  who  was  also  an  occupier,  it  was 
possible  for  one  person  to  cast  twelve  votes  for  each 
vacancy  to  be  filled  in  the  board  of  guardians.  This 
plan  obviously  gave  to  property  a  very  excessive  rep- 
resentation. Moreover,  there  were  ex-officio  members 
in  all  the  boards  of  guardians  who  further  increased 
the  preponderance  of  the  propertied  and  privileged 
classes.  Mr.  Fowler's  Local  Government  Bill  of  1894, 
although  not  primarily  intended  as  a  measure  dealing 
with  the  poor-law  machinery,  actually  revolutionized 
the  entire  system ;  for  it  abolished  the  plural  voting 
and  ex-officio  membership,  made  all  women  eligible, 
reduced  the  franchise  to  the  most  popular  basis,  mak- 
ing it  the  same  as  that  for  the  parish  councils,  and 
made  the  term  of  guardians  three  years.  The  practi- 
cal importance  of  this  reconstruction  of  the  boards  of 
guardians  of  the  poor  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 

For  London  the  change  will  have  many  advantages. 
The  thirty-one  metropolitan  poor-law  authorities  have 
huge  responsibilities,  with  100,000  paupers  to  main- 
tain, and  other  duties  and  outlays  which  involve  the 


THE  GOVEENMENT  OF  LONDON  257 

handling  of  from  $15,000,000  to  $20,000,000  a  year.  CHAP.  vm. 
These  authorities  ought,  then,  to  have  the  confidence 
of  the  people  and  to  be  elected  as  other  public  servants     London.0 
are.    Moreover,  the  democratic  control  of  the  poor- 
law  machinery  may  now  be  expected  to  promote  the 
project  of  a  simplifying  of  London's  local  divisions 
and  jurisdictions.     At  present  the  poor-law  districts    The  clagh 
do  not  coincide,  except  here  and  there,  with  the  parishes  and  t"?gie  of 

'  f  local  juns- 

and  districts  that  constitute  what  we  may  call  the  sub-  dictions. 
municipalities.  But  inasmuch  as  the  peculiar  voting 
system  of  the  poor-law  boards  has  been  abolished, 
there  would  seem  to  be  no  reason  why  in  the  early 
future  the  two  sets  of  districts  should  not  be  assimi- 
lated. The  whole  London  tendency  is,  clearly,  toward 
the  creation  of  a  series  of  distinct,  popularly  governed 
sub-municipalities,  under  the  aegis  of  an  aggrandized 
central  municipality.  The  Fowler  act  of  1894,  trans- 
forming the  vestries  into  district  councils  and  deal-  ingtendency. 
ing  analogously  with  the  unions,  will  eventually  have 
accomplished  almost  as  much  toward  London's  ulti- 
mate municipal  system  as  the  Ritchie  act  of  1888, 
which  created  the  county  council. 

Mr.  Fowler  himself  declared,  when  he  introduced  his 
great  bill,  that  it  would  constitute  the  second  volume 
of  local  government  reform,  the  measure  of  1888  hav-  The  "third 
ing  been  the  first  volume,  while  the  third  would  follow  v°refonn.° 
in  due  time,  and  would  include  the  unification  of  Lon- 
don, and  the  entire  revision  of  its  central  and  sectional 
governmental  system.  As  a  proof  of  his  practical  in- 
tentions regarding  London,  he  proposed  to  Parliament 
the  appointment  at  once  of  a  royal  commission  "  to  con- 
sider the  proper  conditions  under  which  the  amalga- 
mation of  the  city  and  county  of  London  can  be  effected, 

.„  .  Thecom- 

and  to  make  specific  and  practical  proposals  for  the    mission  on 

„        T,  ,  •        -i    ,  i  .  i  .  London  uni- 

purpose.77     It  was  determined  that  the  commission     acation. 
should  be  so  composed  as  to  insure  respect  for  its 

I.— 17 


258 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  VIII. 


Its  fortunate 
I>ersonnel. 


A  valuable 
report  on 
metropoli- 
tan govern- 
ment. 


Suggestions 

for  Boston, 

New  York, 

etc. 


The  federa- 
tive prin- 
ciple. 


opinions.  Mr.  Leonard  H.  Courtney,  a  highly  dis- 
tinguished member  of  parliament,  universally  esteemed 
for  his  impartiality  and  excellent  judgment,  was  made 
chairman.  Sir  Thomas  Farrer  of  the  London  county 
council,  the  solicitor  of  the  old  City  corporation,  the 
mayor  of  Liverpool  (Mr.  Robert  D.  Holt),  and  the 
town  clerk  of  Manchester  (Mr.  Edward  Orford  Smith) 
were  the  other  members  of  the  commission.  Thus  its 
membership  combined  great  knowledge  of  British  mu- 
nicipal administration  in  general  with  special  qualifi- 
cations to  consider  London's  peculiar  problems.  Much 
testimony  was  heard,  and  the  county  council  rendered 
active  aid  in  promoting  a  thorough  inquiry.  The  old 
City  became  disaffected  when  it  found  that  its  anti- 
quated methods  and  incomprehensible  finances  were 
considered  a  proper  field  for  investigation,  and  with- 
drew its  member  from  the  commission  before  the  work 
was  completed.  But  the  moral  force  of  the  commis- 
sion's report  was  not  diminished  by  the  defection  of 
the  old  City.  The  conclusions  reached1  in  August, 
1894,  and  made  public  a  few  weeks  later,  constitute  not 
only  a  remarkably  statesmanlike  plan  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  London's  task  of  municipal  reconstruc- 
tion, but  form  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  science 
of  administration  as  applied  to  large  metropolitan 
centers.  A  "  Greater  New  York,"  for  example,  might 
find  in  it  many  instructive  suggestions;  and  to  the 
problems  of  the  future  metropolitan  Boston  it  might 
seem  to  have  an  even  closer  application. 

This  so-called  unification  commission  found  that 
the  "large  area  of  London  outside  the  city  is  really  a 
great  town,  and  requires  town  and  not  county  govern- 
ment"; and  proceeded  to  declare  that,  "bearing  this 
in  mind,  we  have  to  apply  to  an  area  called  a  county, 
but  really  a  town  now  endowed  with  an  elementary 
iSee  Appendix. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  LONDON  259 

form  of  government,  the  dignity  and  completeness  of  CHAP.  VIIL 
the  highest  form  of  municipal  life."  But  it  also  found 
that  London,  while  one  large  town,  "  for  convenience 
of  administration,  as  well  as  from  local  diversities, 
comprises  within  itself  several  smaller  towns ;  and 
the  application  of  the  principles,  and  still  more  of  the 
machinery,  of  municipal  government  to  these  several 
areas  must  be  limited  by  conditions  arising  from  this 
fact."  It  was  then  asserted  that  any  controversy  re- 
maining would  turn  upon  the  partition  of  powers  be- 
tween this  central  and  these  local  bodies. 
The  report  then  explains  its  plan  of  making  the  A  great  mu- 

/T         ,  •    •       i  j      nicipalcor- 

county  of  London  a  great  municipal  corporation,  and  poration. 
transforming  the  county  council  into  a  central  town 
council,  its  chairman  becoming  a  lord  mayor,  and  ac- 
quiring the  dignities  that  now  pertain  to  the  lord 
mayor  of  the  old,  inner  City,  with  other  and  more 
substantial  ones  growing  out  of  the  fact  that  he 
would  be  the  chief  functionary  of  five  million  people 
rather  than  of  thirty-five  thousand.  The  inner  City 
becomes  reduced,  under  this  plan,  to  the  status  of  a  mg  the  sub- 
sub-municipality — merely  the  central  one  of  a  series  ities. 
of  local  administrative  districts.  But  the  commission 
urged  the  importance  of  allowing  as  much  actual 
authority  over  local  affairs  as  possible  to  these  dis- 
tricts, and  of  encouraging  their  self -consciousness  and 
pride  of  locality.  It  found  that  in  point  of  fact  the 
larger  parishes  and  existing  administrative  districts, 
under  the  system  of  1855,  are  already  "administered 
with  varying  but  in  many  cases  considerable  success, 
and  possess  attributes  of  local  life  which  could  not 
wisely  be  weakened  or  endangered."  It  names  nine-  Retention  <.r 
teen  of  these  which,  in  addition  to  the  district  it  now 
calls  the  "  old  City,"  might  very  well,  without  much 
or  any  rearrangement  of  areas,  enter  at  once  upon 
a  municipal  career  under  the  new  system.  Those 


260  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP. vm.  named  in  the  report  are:  (1)  St.  Marylebone,  (2)  St. 
Pancras,  (3)  Lambeth,  (4)  St.  George,  Hanover 

A  partial  list 

of  London's   Square,  (5)  Islington,  St.  Mary,  (6)  Shoreditch,  St. 

slpaiTttens.cl"  Leonard,  (7)  Kensington,  St.  Mary  Abbott's,  (8)  Ful- 
ham,  (9)  Hammersmith,  (10)  Mile-end  Old  Town,  (11) 
Paddington,  (12)  Bethnal  Green,  St.  Matthew,  (13) 
Newington,  St.  Mary  (Surrey),  (14)  Clerkenwell,  St. 
James  and  St.  John,  (15)  Chelsea,  (16)  Hampstead,  St. 
John,  (17)  Westminster,  St.  Margaret  and  St.  John, 
(18)  Poplar,  (19)  Whitechapel.  The  report  does  not 
attempt  to  rearrange  the  other  parishes  of  London, 
but  intimates  that  they  could  readily  enough  be 
grouped  into  a  few  units  of  administration.  Thus 
the  London  sub-municipalities  might  altogether  num- 

tnirty  in  ail.  ber  not  far  from  thirty.  The  commission  would  give 
them  elective  councils,  like  those  of  the  provincial 

Local  . 

mayors,  municipalities,  and  would  allow  them  to  have  mayors, 
though  dispensing  with  aldermen.  Most  of  their  pres- 
ent duties  would  be  left  to  them,  and  various  others 
would  be  added.  The  commission  declares  for  the 
principle  of  assigning  to  the  local  administrations 
everything  that  they  can  do  as  well  as  the  central 
council  could  do  it.  It  holds  that  in  any  case  the  de- 
partments of  administration  possessing  a  common  in- 
Pnncipie  of  terest  f or  all  London  would  always  give  the  central 
nidpaiwork.  authority  enough  to  do,  and  that,  as  for  other  matters, 
it  would  be  best  to  allow  the  central  body  to  make 
rules  and  by-laws,  to  inspect  and  oversee,  and  to  step 
in  where  there  is  default  or  neglect,  but  otherwise  to 
leave  the  actual  performance  of  administrative  work 
to  the  local  councils  and  their  emplovees. 

Gentle  but  .  ,  ".  .,.,.. 

firm  treat-        The  commission  proposes  that  such  responsibilities 

'"old  city.6   of  the  old  City  as  are  general  in  their  nature  should  be 

made  over  to  the  new  London  corporation,  and  that 

the  corresponding  assets  and  liabilities  should  follow 

the  same  rule.    It  suggests  reasons  for  allowing  the 


THE  GOVEENMENT  OF  LONDON  261 

old  City  a  doubled  representation  in  the  central  coun-  CHAP.  VIIL 
cil.    It  provides  for  the  gradual  extinction  of  the  po- 
litical and  municipal  prerogatives  of  the  freemen  of 
the  livery  companies,  and  offers  the  existing  city 
aldermen  the  consolation  of  life  seats  in  the  local  coun- 
cil of  the  old  City.     In  short,  it  abolishes  the  ancient 
corporation  with  all  possible  courtesy  and  consider-   Adj  lomat 
ation.     So  diplomatically  is  the  scheme  presented  that    I0cf  P™f88 
it  might  be  said  to  revive  and  extend  to  the  whole  me-      matu.n. 
tropolis  the  corporate  life  that  has  hitherto  been  pent 
up  in  a  single  square  mile,  while  still  leaving  the  old 
City  in  control  of  its  local  affairs.    But  whether  one 
prefers  to  say  that  it  annexes  the  county  to  the  City, 
or  that  it  merges  the  City  in  a  municipalized  county, 
the  result  is  one  and  the  same. 

Public  opinion  has  come  so  strongly  to  the  support 
of  the  proposals  of  the  commission  that  there  can  be  ion. 
little  doubt  that  a  law  will  soon  be  enacted  to  carry 
out  the  plan.  The  great  merit  of  the  report  lies  in  its 
solid  grasp  of  actual  conditions  and  tendencies."  The 
measure  of  1888  laid  the  foundation  for  a  central 
municipal  authority ;  that  of  1894  went  far  toward  pre- 
paring the  way  for  the  definite  establishment  of  the 
sub-municipalities  upon  uniform  and  efficient  lines; 
and  the  amalgamation  of  the  old  City  with  the  ad- 
ministrative county,  with  the  issuance  of  a  municipal 
charter  to  the  metropolis,  will  come  as  the  crowning 
task  at  a  very  early  day.  The  Conservatives  have  the 
credit  for  the  law  of  1888,  and  the  Liberals  for  that  of 
1894.  The  completion  of  the  task  of  creating  a  fed- 
erated metropolitan  municipality  ought  to  be  car- 
ried out  by  common  consent  and  without  obtrusion 
of  party  politics.  • 

The  commission  has  made  it  clear  that  there  can  be   An  instruc- 
found  in  practice  a  reasonable  and  effective  division     stration. 
of  functions  between  a  great  central  municipal  council 

I.- 17* 


262  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BEITAIN 

CHAP.  viii.  and  a  series  of  highly  organized,  directly  elected  district 
councils.  It  suggests  that  the  members  of  the  central 
council  might  advantageously  sit  ex  officio  in  the  local 
bodies  of  the  districts  they  represent.  It  advises  that 
women  should  be  eligible  to  the  district  and  central 
councils,  and  that  the  franchise  should  remain,  as  in 
the  law  of  1894,  open  to  all  classes  of  parliamentary 
and  municipal  voters.  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain  has 
lately  expressed  the  opinion  that  half  a  million  people 

How  many  9         * 

people  can  a  are  as  many  as  can  well  be  cared  for  by  a  centrally 
government  administered  municipal  government.  He  would  prob- 
sTneTude?y  ably  hold  that  when  towns  far  outgrow  that  limit  the 
details  become  too  numerous,  the  interests  of  localities 
become  too  varied,  and  the  whole  situation  becomes  too 
complex  for  a  system  that  is  kept  wholly  under  one 
central  authority.  There  is  much  to  be  said  on  both 
sides  of  the  question.  If  Mr.  Chamberlain  meant  that 
the  great  towns  lack  essential  unity,  and  should  there- 
fore be  broken  into  independent  municipalities,  his 
position  could  not  be  maintained.  There  are  general 
concerns  belonging  to  the  class  of  towns  having  more 
than  a  million  people  that  require  unity  of  treatment 
even  more  imperatively  than  those  of  smaller  towns. 
But  there  may,  on  the  other  hand,  be  introduced  into 
the  management  of  municipal  affairs  in  the  great  cities 
a  federal  principle  that  will  secure  better  detailed 
London's  administration  for  localities  while  enhancing  the  au- 

solution  of  a  .    . 

iiewprobiem  thority  and  the  efficiency  of  the  central  municipal  gov- 
tration.  ernment  in  all  matters  that  have  a  general  bearing. 
This  will  be  London's  contribution  to  the  science  of 
metropolitan  government  at  a  time  when  the  rapid 
expansion  of  a  series  of  metropolitan  areas  in  Europe 
and  America  is  creating  a  new  and  peculiar  problem 
in  administrative  organization. 


CHAPTER  IX 
METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 

MODERN  municipal  governments  exist  in  order 
that  they  may  render  certain  positive  services 
to  the  communitv.    The  test  of  their  excellence  and 

«Q    .  ,.      .  .  The  positive 

efficiency  must  he  in  the  success  with  which  they  per-    objects  of 

<»  MI     •  .•  . «  T  .  -i  municipal 

torm  their  practical  Junctions.  A  discussion,  there-  government. 
fore,  of  municipal  services  and  municipal  problems 
cannot  well  be  detached  altogether  from  a  discussion 
of  the  mechanism  of  the  municipal  government.  How- 
ever, it  is  quite  possible  to  view  the  governmental 
arrangements  of  a  metropolis  like  London  first  from 
the  standpoint  of  organization  for  municipal  pur- 
poses, and  second  from  a  standpoint  which  permits 
us  to  survey  the  work  to  which  the  administrative 
machinery  must  be  applied.  In  the  preceding  chapter 
we  have  considered  primarily  the  question  how  Lon- 
don has  been,  is,  and  is  to  be  organized  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  tasks  of  a  modern  metropolitan  „ 

The  London 

government.  We  have  now  to  consider  the  tasks  problems, 
themselves ;  for  it  is  obvious  that  the  experiences 
and  problems  of  metropolitan  London  must  convey 
some  direct  lessons,  and  must  throw  many  side-lights 
upon  the  treatment  of  corresponding  metropolitan 
problems  everywhere. 

Curiously  enough,  to  the  pressing  manner  in  which   Drainage  as 
the  drainage  problem  was  forced  upon  it  London       task. 
owed  the  fact  that  it  had,  until  recently,  made  any 

263 


264  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ix.  progress  whatever  toward  a  central  administration. 
Metropolitan  government,  when  once  established, 
showed  capabilities  for  serving  the  interests  of  its 
constituent  millions  of  citizens  in  a  great  number 
of  ways;  but  the  need  of  a  main-drainage  system 
was  the  obstinate  fact  which  led  to  the  reluctant 
admission  that  there  Was  any  such  entity  as  a  metro- 
Poiicein  politan  London.  The  general  government  was  in 
"hand!?  control  of  the  police  system,  and  had  no  intention 
to  abdicate  in  favor  of  a  metropolitan  municipality. 
A  number  of  private  water-companies, — taking  ad- 
vantage of  the  helplessness  of  a  vast  community  that 
had  found  no  way  even  to  discern,  much  less  to  assert, 

\Vatermpn-  ' 

vate  hands,  its  own  interests, —  had  obtained  perpetual  charters 
from  Parliament,  had  parceled  out  the  metropolitan 
district,  and  were  charging  the  people  monopoly  rates 
and  making  splendid  profits  on  the  very  simple  plan 
of  pumping  the  unfiltered  water  of  the  river  Thames 
through  the  streets  and  into  the  houses.  A  series  of 
private  gas-companies  in  like  fashion  were  supplying 
light,  and  demonstrating  the  axiom  that  competition 

Gas-supply  ,,  ,  ,  ,,      . 

also  private,  in  the  gas  business  always  results  in  more  oppressive 
monopoly.  The  fossilized  corporation  of  the  inner 
City,  exclusive  and  self -perpetuating,  had  much  more 
in  common  with  such  private  monopolies  as  the  gas- 
companies  and  water-companies  than  it  had  with  the 
modern  municipal  governments  that  exist  for  the  gen- 
eral welfare,  and  that  are  answerable  to  the  public  for 
the  manner  in  which  they  discharge  their  duties. 
This  inner  corporation,  while  unwilling  to  admit  the 
The  city's  greater  London  to  its  privileges,  held  a  monopoly 
monopoly,  control  of  market  rights  for  the  metropolis,  and  thus 
took  toll  of  the  whole  population  in  performance  of  a 
highly  necessary  public  function.  The  City  corpora- 
tion also  kept  some  hold  upon  the  river  considered  as 
a  navigable  stream,  and  was  the  harbor  authority. 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS          265 

As  for  the  docks,  and  shipping  facilities  in  general,    CHAP.  ix. 
they  had  naturally,  in  the  absence  of  an  enlightened 

J  » »  The  docks  a 

local  administration,  taken  the  form  of  control  by  private  trust. 
private  companies  as  a  semi-monopoly,  taxing  com- 
merce directly  and  the  community  indirectly.    The 
more  strictly  local  and  detailed  administration  outside 
of  the  old  City  was  all  in  the  hands  of  the  vestries  of 
many  scores  of  parishes ;  and  these  vestries  were  so     Minor  a(1 
constituted  and  conducted  as  virtually  to  exclude  the  ministration 

»  and  vestry 

principle  of  popular  representation.  Each  vestry  in  "rings." 
its  petty  sphere  was  a  privileged  and  self -perpetuating 
body,  eager  to  imitate  the  methods  of  the  City  corpo- 
ration and  the  liveried  companies.  The  vestries  levied 
rates  as  they  pleased,  and  followed  their  own  variable 
moods  and  devices  in  matters  of  paving  and  street 
lighting. 

There  were  still  other  "interests"  besides  those 
that  have  been  named.     The  disorganized  condition  of    The  usurp- 
several  million  people,  living  contiguously  in  a  prov-    mgestsn"  r 
ince  covered  with  houses,  afforded  infinite  oppor- 
tunities; and  there  emerged  all  kinds  of  substitutes 
for  an  organized  central  administration.     As  Tam- 
many Hall  rose  to  power  in  New  York  through  its 
skill  and  tenacity  in  seizing  hold  of  the  simple  fact 
that  New  York  had  no  positive,  unified  central  govern-  Tammany,— 
ment,  so  in  London  the  unreformed  City  corporation,     parallel" 
the  packed  vestries,  the  greedy  water-companies,  the 
ill-regulated  gas-companies,  the  great  monopoly  land- 
lord interests,  the  trustees  of  innumerable  charities 
ecclesiastical  and  otherwise,  the  managers  of  asylums 
and  institutions,  and  scores  of  other  elements  and  in- 
terests, each  in  its  own  way  and  for  its  own  purposes, 
appropriated  a  portion  of  the  control  and  authority 
which  should  have  been  exercised  either  directly  at  the    abdication. 
hands  of  a  central  municipal  authority,  or  else  under 
its  stern  supervision. 


266 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Drainage  a 

neglected 
field  of 
action. 


Emergence 
of  the  prob- 
lem. 


But  there  was  one  public  service  whose  mismanage- 
ment could  not  be  tolerated,  and  which  offered  no 
compensations  or  attractions  for  any  of  the  selfish  in- 
terests which  had  apportioned  among  themselves  so 
many  of  the  other  attributes  and  functions  of  a  metro- 
politan government.  This  task  was  that  of  drainage. 
There  was  no  way  to  make  monopoly  profits  out  of 
it.  It  was  all  expense  and  no  income.  It  must  be 
remembered  again  that  at  the  opening  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  metropolitan  London  did  not  have  as 
many  as  a  million  people,  and  the  population  of  the 
Thames  valley  above  London  was  only  a  fraction  of 
that  which  the  census  reports  now  show.  But  the 
Thames  itself  was  quite  as  large  a  stream  then  as 
now,  and  it  is  possible  that  its  volume  of  fresh  water 
may  have  been  somewhat  greater.  There  are  several 
reasons,  easily  apparent  on  a  moment's  reflection, 
why  the  question  of  drainage  began  to  force  itself 
upon  many  urban  communities 'about  the  middle  of 
the  century.  For  one  thing,  the  modes  and  standards 
of  civilized  life  had  grown  more  fastidious,  the  rela- 
tion of  cleanliness  to  health  had  come  to  be  better  un- 
derstood, the  idea  of  meeting  and  controlling  epi- 
demics by  public  measures  had  been  fairly  broached, 
and  the  innovation  of  underground  drains  had  be- 
gun to  be  regarded  as  a  desirable  urban  arrangement. 
But  in  addition  to  these  considerations,  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  there  was  now  appearing  the  new 
phenomenon  of  rapid  town  development.  Great  pop- 
ulations were  becoming  massed  together;  and  the 
streams  which  had  sufficed  fairly  well  to  carry  off  the 
liquid  waste  that  had  been  poured  into  them  from  the 
small  surface  drains,  had  now  become  taxed  beyond 
the  point  of  decency  and  safety.  London,  with  the 
adjacent  country,  is  naturally  drained  by  the  river 
Thames.  As  population  developed  in  the  early  dec- 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


267 


ades  of  the  century,  the  general  government  found 
it  advisable  to  appoint  a  number  of  commissioners, 
with  limited  authority,  to  exercise  supervision  over 
the  sewers  and  drainage  of  London.  But  the  prob- 
lem was  far  too  large  for  any  such  treatment.  The 
condition  of  the  river  grew  steadily  worse.  Local  un- 
derground sewers  had  begun  to  be  quite  generally  con- 
structed, and  they  emptied  into  the  river  on  either  side 
at  the  points  of  nearest  access.  The  inflowing  tides 
forced  the  sludge-laden  water  far  up-stream,  and  the 
outflowing  tides  brought  it  back  again  to  plague  the 
town.  At  times  the  nuisance  became  serious  enough 
to  obstruct  navigation. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that  the  Metropo- 
lis Management  Act  of  1855  was  passed,  the  Metro- 
politan Board  of  Works  created,  the  parish  system 
considerably  reformed  and  improved,  and  the  tangible 
beginning  made  of  a  metropolitan  municipal  govern- 
ment. The  first  task  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of 
Works  was  to  construct  a  system  of  trunk  sewers  for 
London.  The  main  outlines  were  simple  enough.  The 
problem  of  the  Board  of  Works  was  that  of  gathering 
all  the  sewage  of  London  north  of  the  Thames  into  a 
series  of  great  intercepting  or  trunk  sewers  which  were 
to  converge  at  a  convenient  point,  whence  by  means  of 
one  great  sewer  tunnel  the  whole  fluid  mass  should  be 
conveyed  to  a  point  of  outfall  on  the  river-bank  some 
miles  below  the  city.  For  that  part  of  London  south 
of  the  Thames  a  similar  system  was  to  be  created. 
Local  street  sewers  were  to  be  constructed  and  main- 
tained by  the  parish  vestries  and  district  boards,  under 
plans  conforming  with  those  of  the  metropolitan  sys- 
tem ;  and  the  drainage  of  each  local  district  was  to  be 
collected  by  some  arm  of  the  metropolitan  board's 
ramification  of  trunk  sewers.  The  system  was  car- 
ried out  efficiently.  Trunk  sewers  at  different  levels 


CHAP.  IX. 


Conditions 

in  the  middle 

oftheXIXth 

century. 


Creation  of 
the  metro- 
politan 
board. 


The  main 
drainage 
project. 


268 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Efficiently 
carried  out. 


Coat  of  the 
undertaking. 


Working  of 
the  inter- 
mittent sys- 
tem. 


Pumping 
works. 


pierced  all  the  metropolitan  districts  on  both  sides  of 
the  river,  and  two  huge  tunnels,  one  on  the  north  side 
and  the  other  on  the  south  side,  were  constructed  to 
carry  the  total  effluent  for  a  distance  of  some  fifteen 
miles,  the  outfall  on  the  north  side  being  at  Barking 
and  that  on  the  south  side  being  at  Crossness. 

During  the  whole  period  of  its  active  existence,  from 
1855  to  the  time  when  its  duties  and  responsibilities 
were  turned  over  to  the  London  county  council  in 
1889,  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works  had  expended 
more  than  $35,000,000  upon  its  scheme  of  main  drain- 
age, while  the  parishes  and  districts  had  also  expended 
in  the  aggregate  a  sum  probably  much  greater  for 
street  sewers.  The  original  plan  of  the  metropolitan 
board  was  that  of  temporary  storage  at  the  outfall 
points,  in  order  to  discharge  each  half-day's  accumu- 
lation upon  the  outflowing  tide.  This  system  had  its 
evident  advantages ;  but  experience  proved  that  there 
were  disadvantages  to  an  extent  quite  unforeseen.  The 
storage  system  at  times  of  rainfall  resulted  in  a  choking 
of  the  sewers  and  an  overflow  of  sewage  at  innumer- 
able places  in  London,  with  the  most  disastrous  conse- 
quences. At  the  point  of  convergence  of  the  trunk 
sewers  north  of  the  Thames,  it  was  necessary  to  erect 
a  great  pumping  station  which  should  lift  the  collected 
sewage  a  distance  of  eighteen  or  twenty  feet  in  order 
that  it  might  reach  the  Barking  outfall  at  a  point  suffi- 
ciently elevated  to  make  possible  its  discharge  on  the 
turning  tide ;  but  the  total  result  of  the  intermittent 
system  was  an  almost  chronic  failure  of  the  mammoth 
pumping  works  at  the  Abbey-Mills  junction  to  keep 
the  collected  mass  in  the  receiving-tanks  low  enough 
to  prevent  the  flooding  of  the  sewer^ system.  It  be- 
came evident  that  the  scheme  of  intermittent 'dis- 
charge ought  if  possible  to  be  abandoned.  The  fre- 
quency of  overflow  had  made  it  necessary  to  provide 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


269 


a  system  of  relief  sewers,  discharging  directly  into 
the  river.  And  thus,  at  all  times  of  heavy  rainfall, 
a  large  proportion  of  the  ordinary  sewage  found  its 
way  to  the  stream  in  the  very  heart  of  the  metropolis. 

Besides  the  constant  study  of  the  problem  made  by 
the  metropolitan  board  and  its  engineers,  there  were 
several  special  examinations  of  the  subject  of  metro- 
politan sewage  disposal  made  by  royal  commissions. 
The  last  of  these  inquiries  was  conducted  by  a  com- 
mission which  was  appointed  in  1882,  and  which  re- 
ported in  1884  after  exhaustive  investigation  of  the 
experience  of  other  great  cities.  The  report  was  by 
no  means  consoling.  It  declared  that  under  no  cir- 
cumstances, neither  by  a  continuous  nor  by  an  inter- 
mittent system,  ought  any  crude  sewage  to  be  dis- 
charged into  the  Thames;  and  it  went  so  far  as  to 
condemn  the  discharge  into  the  river  of  the  partially 
clarified  effluent  after  a  process  of  precipitation  of  the 
solid  materials — although  it  recommended  such  treat- 
ment as  an  alleviating  expedient.  The  Metropolitan 
Board  of  Works  accordingly  proceeded  to  construct 
huge  intercepting  outfall  works  at  Barking  and  at 
Crossness,  and  to  endeavor  with  the  aid  of  a  staff  of 
chemists  and  sanitary  experts  to  find  an  effective  and 
not  too  costly  method  for  the  separation  of  the  sludge 
before  discharging  any  liquid  sewage  into  the  river. 
Not  to  recount  in  detail  the  various  experiments  made, 
the  board  finally  adopted  as  its  system  a  treatment  of 
the  inflowing  sewage  first  with  slaked  lime  and  then 
with  sulphate  of  iron.  About  one  grain  of  sulphate 
of  iron  and  four  grains  of  lime  were  added  to  every  gal- 
lon of  ordinary  sewage  as  the  material  flowed  on  to- 
ward the  great  settling-tanks,  in  which  the  chemicals 
assisted  the  precipitation  of  the  solids. 

The  county  council  found  the  Barking  works  in 
practical  operation,  while  the  Crossness  establishment 


CHAP.  IX. 


Royal  com- 
mission of 
1882-84. 


No  sewage 
ought  to 
enter  the 
Thames. 


Interception 

of  sludge  at 

Barking. 


270 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Improve- 
ments made 
by  county 
council. 


System  as 

completed 

in  1894. 


The  fleet  of 

slmljw 
steamers. 


Sludge  not 
available  as 
a  fertilizer. 


was  only  begun.  It  has  succeeded  in  greatly  improv- 
ing the  efficiency  of  the  system.  Instead  of  using  the 
subsidence  reservoirs  alternately,  it  allows  the  sewage 
to  flow  slowly  through  the  series,  passing  over  weirs 
and  culverts  as  it  moves  on,  depositing  its  sludge  from 
tank  to  tank  until  at  length  it  emerges  deodorized 
and  comparatively  clear  and  unobjectionable,  and  is 
allowed  to  pass  off  into  the  river.  The  county  coun- 
cil completed  the  Crossness  works  in  June,  1894,  and 
since  that  time  in  ordinary  weather  the  entire  flow 
of  London  sewage,  exceeding  200,000,000  gallons  per 
day,  passes  through  the  separating  process  at  one  or 
the  other  of  these  two  great  intercepting  establish- 
ments before  it  enters  the  river.  It  is  still  true  that 
a  portion  of  the  rainfall,  in  varying  amounts  and  not 
wholly  unmixed  with  sewage,  finds  its  way  directly 
into  the  river  by  means  of  the  relief  sewers ;  but  this 
quantity  is  less  than  it  formerly  was,  and  the  comple- 
tion of  additional  pumping  and  main-tunnel  facilities 
will  at  an  early  day  make  it  feasible  to  carry  off  the 
entire  London  drainage,  even  in  exceptional  seasons, 
by  way  of  the  separation  works  at  the  two  outfall 
stations. 

These  outfall  works  have  not  been  constructed  with- 
out considerable  outlay.  The  Barking  establishment 
has  cost  approximately  $2,500,000,  and  the  corre- 
sponding one  at  Crossness  represents  a  cost  of  more 
than  $1,500,000.  But  these  two  stations  by  no  means 
complete  the  working  plant.  A  very  essential  auxil- 
iary is  the  municipal  fleet  of  great  sludge  steamers 
that  carry  the  soft  mud  from  the  precipitation-tanks 
out  to  the  deep  sea.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that 
no  successful  use  of  the  sludge  can  at  present  be 
made  for  agricultural  purposes.  The  experiment  was 
tried  for  a  time,  but  abandoned.  In  order  to  make 
it  possible  to  distribute  sludge  as  a  commercial  ferti- 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS  271 

lizer,  it  must  be  compressed  into  cakes  or  blocks.  But  CHAP.  ix. 
even  then  it  has  a  low  value,  and  its  utilization  was 
found  to  pay  only  a  fraction  of  the  expense  of  com- 
pression and  transportation.  Since  the  completion 
of  the  Crossness  works,  the  system  has  required  a  fleet 
of  six  steamers  for  the  removal  of  the  sludge,  each 
ship  carrying  a  thousand  tons  on  every  trip.  The 
arrangements  for  loading  and  discharge  and  for  the 
whole  movement  of  the  fleet  have  been  reduced  to  a  Loading  and 

.  emptying 

system  of  great  convenience  and  absolute  precision,  sludge  ships. 
The  soft  mud  is  driven  by  force-pumps  through  crane- 
like  tubes  directly  into  the  hold  of  the  ship.  The 
cargo  is  carried  fifty  miles  down-stream  to  a  very 
deep  channel,  when  the  discharging  valves  are  opened 
below  water-level,  and  the  mass  of  sludge  unloads 
itself  while  the  ship  keeps  on  her  course  for  a  distance 
of  ten  miles.  Every  conceivable  test  of  close  observa- 
tion and  chemical  analysis  has  failed  to  detect  any  in- 
fluence or  effect  of  this  discharge  either  in  the  water 
or  on  the  adjacent  shores. 

The  county  council  has  brought  to  bear  upon  every 
detail  of  the  management  of  the  drainage  system  a  zeal 
at  once  for  improvement  and  for  economy.  The  old 
Board  of  Works,  neither  in  the  one  respect  nor  the 
other,  could  compare  for  a  moment  with  the  sewage 
committee  of  the  county  council.  Constant  additions  problem 
and  reconstructions  are  bringing  the  network  of  col-  the  present 
lecting  sewers  toward  a  condition  of  modern  complete- 
ness. Thus,  for  the  present,  the  problem  of  London's 
drainage  may  be  considered  as  solved;  for  the  existing 
system  is  susceptible  of  enlargement  from  time  to 
time  as  the  volume  of  sewage  increases.  The  ramifi- 
cation of  main  sewers  can  be  extended  through  a  wider 
area,  and  can  serve  another  million  people  in  the  outer 
ring,  as  it  undoubtedly  will  within  half  a  dozen  years. 
The  pumping  facilities  can  be  increased  accordingly, 


272 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  ix. 


Demands  of 

the  future, 


12  000  000 

people, 


Wms. 


additional  outfall  tunnels  can  be  constructed,  the  pre- 
cipitation works  can  be  enlarged,  more  ships  can  be 
added  to  the  fleet  of  sludge-carriers,  while  continued 
experience  can  devise  means  to  make  the  precipitation 
more  complete,  and  thus  still  better  to  protect  the  river 
against  pollution. 

But  even  yet  the  final  system  of  sewage  disposal 
has  not  been  adopted.  Mr.  Binney,  the  engineer  of 
the  county  council  under  whose  direction  the  entire 
system  is  now  administered,  made  a  report  in  1891, 
with  the  advice  and  assistance  of  Sir  Benjamin  Baker, 

.  '  7 

touching  the  whole  subject  in  its  broadest  aspects.  If 
what  may  be  called  "  Main-Drainage  London  "  now 
embraces  a  population  of  5,000,000,  there  are  already 
about  7,000,000  people  within  the  district  which  the 
drainage  system  must  soon  include  j  and  within  forty 
years,  by  all  conservative  calculations,  not  less  than 
12,000.000  people  will  have  to  be  served  by  the  one 
metropolitan  sewerage  and  sewage-disposal  system. 
Forty  years  is  not  along  time  in  the  history  of  a  great 
city.  That  period  has  elapsed  quickly  enough  since 
the  metropolitan  board  laid  down  the  lines  of  Lon- 
don's present  drainage.  It  is  therefore  needful  that 
in  the  provision  of  essential  public  services  the  future 
should  be  well  considered.  Messrs.  Binney  and  Baker 
made  a  careful  study  of  the  estuary  of  the  Thames, 
and  proposed  a  system  which  might  combine  sewage 
farms  with  the  direct  discharge  of  crude  sewage  into 
the  sea.  The  proposed  scheme  would  be  a  costly  one, 
the  capital  outlay  being  estimated  at  from  $40,000,000 
to  $50,000,000;  for  it  would  require  outfall  tunnels 
from  forty  to  sixty  miles  long,  according  to  the  route 
selected.  One  proposal  would  extend  the  existing 
main  tunnel  from  Barking  in  a  direct  line  toward  the 
mouth  of  the  Thames,  some  twenty  miles  further,  and 
there  distribute  the  sewage  to  the  amount  of  perhaps 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


273 


200,000,000  gallons  a  day  over  the  surface  of  irrigated 
sewage-farms  on  the  Birmingham  or  Berlin  model. 
But  200,000,000  or  300,000,000  additional  gallons  must 
be  removed  in  the  early  future,  and  a  great  tunnel 
eighteen  feet  in  diameter  has  been  proposed  that  would 
follow  a  somewhat  circuitous  route  in  order  to  take 
advantage  of  natural  grades,  and  extend  well  out  un- 
der the  shoals  of  the  Foulness  Sands  to  a  point  of 
discharge  in  deep  water. 

For  so  great  and  so  rich  a  community  as  metro- 
politan London  will  be  in  the  second  decade  of  the 
twentieth  century,  the  cost  of  executing  sewer  works 
such  as  those  proposed  by  Mr.  Binney  will,  relatively 
speaking,  not  be  half  so  great  as  was  the  cost  of  the 
existing  system.  It  was  estimated  by  Sir  Robert 
Rawlinson  in  an  elaborate  paper  published  by  him 
some  years  ago  on  "  London  Sewerage  and  Sewage," 
that  the  entire  volume  of  this  fluid  waste  was  then 
worth  nearly  $9,000,000  a  year  for  manurial  purposes, 
and  that  the  true  system  for  London  to  adopt  was  that 
of  the  direct  irrigation  of  land.  Sir  Robert's  opinion 
is  impregnably  sound.  The  economic  loss  involved 
in  a  system  for  the  chemical  separation  of  sludge, 
with  its  removal  to  the  deep  sea  by  means  of  a  fleet  of 
ships  in  constant  service  (making  a  round  trip  of  a 
hundred  and  twenty  miles,  which  may  in  future  have 
to  be  increased  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hun- 
dred miles),  would  appear  on  reflection  to  be  very 
great  both  in  the  expensiveness  of  the  method  and  in 
the  irreparable  waste  of  material  that  is  abstracted 
from  the  laud  and  ought  to  be  returned  to  it.  If  the 
present  method  does  not  require  so  great  a  capital,  it 
involves  expensive  processes.  These  entail  an  actual 
financial  burden  as  heavy  as  the  interest  payments 
that  would  be  required  for  an  enormous  capital  in- 
vestment. 

I.- 18 


CHAP.  IX. 


Direct  dis- 
charge of 
sewage  in 
deep  sea. 


Economic 
considera- 
tions. 


Manurial 
value  of 
London's 
sewage. 


Cost  of 

sludge 

freighting. 


274 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Precipitat- 
ing the 
sludge  clari- 
ties but  does 
not  purify. 


Filtration, 

as  begun  at 

Glasgow, 

purities. 


The  Barking 
effluent  pol- 
lutes the 
Thames. 


Manurial 

value  of  the 

clarified 

sewage. 


But  there  is  a  further  consideration  that  remains  to 
be  mentioned.  The  present  system  of  chemical  pre- 
cipitation, while  it  removes  most  of  the  solid  matter 
suspended  in  the  inky  fluid  and  leaves  a  compara- 
tively clear-looking  effluent,  by  no  means  purifies  the 
released  liquid.  In  explaining  the  new  Glasgow  sys- 
tem of  sewage  treatment,  I  have  shown  how  the  ef- 
fluent after  the  sludge  has  been  precipitated  is  carried 
through  a  series  of  coke  and  sand  filters.  And  thus 
the  final  result  on  discharge  into  the  river  is  a  water 
that  has  been  not  merely  relieved  of  its  muddiness, 
but  also  rendered  both  chemically  and  bacteriologi- 
cally  pure  by  a  process  of  filtration.  With  a  little 
additional  care,  perhaps  without  any  change  whatever 
in  the  system,  the  final  Glasgow  effluent  might  safely 
be  pumped  into  the  reservoirs  that  furnish  the  town's 
supply  of  drinking-water.  It  is  true  that  the  settling 
of  the  mud  or  sludge  is  a  great  gain.  But  the  dis- 
charged fluid  at  Barking  or  Crossness  is  still  satu- 
rated with  chemical  solutions  of  organic  waste,  and  is 
as  impure  as  water  could  possibly  be.  No  system  of 
discharge  on  ebbing  tides  can  prevent  the  ba'ck-flow 
of  this  poisonous  liquid  ;  and  the  fresh  water  coming 
down  from  the  upper  reaches  of  the  Thames  is  not 
sufficient  in  volume  to  purify  it  or  to  nullify  its  effects. 
It  was  for  this  reason  that  the  commission  of  1884  de- 
clared that  any  permanent  scheme  must  provide  for 
the  further  purification  of  this  liquid  by  some  process ; 
and  they  preferred  to  advise  its  application  to  land. 
When  manurial  values  are  considered,  it  is  true  that 
the  apparently  clear  water  flowing  into  the  river  from 
the  Crossness  and  Barking  works  contains  far  more 
of  the  nitrogenous  soil-enriching  elements  than  are 
carried  out  to  sea  in  the  2,500,000  tons  of  sludge  that 
are  now  annually  freighted  away  from  the  two  out- 
fall stations.  I  have  not  scrupled  thus  to  discuss  the 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


275 


Controver- 
sies touch- 
ing London's 

water-sup- 
ply- 


problem  of  London's  sewage  at  length,  because  not    CHAP.  ix. 
one  of  the  nine  or  ten  great  American  communities 
that  are  assuming  metropolitan  proportions  has  as   , 

0  r  .  Lessons  for 

yet  begun  to  grapple  conclusively  with  the  problem     America. 
of  the  final  and  satisfactory  disposition  of  its  sewage. 
London's  case  is  more  urgent ;    and  our  American 
cities  may  yet  profit,  if  they  will,  by  the  results  of 
London's  costly  experiments  and  investigations. 


It  happens  that  there  is  a  somewhat  intimate  con- 
nection between  the  future  of  London's  water-supply 
and  that  of  its  modes  of  sewage  treatment.  Two  great 
topics  regarding  the  present  and  future  supply  of  the 
London  population  with  water  are  now  under  con- 
troversial discussion.  One  of  these  controversies  re- 
lates to  the  control  of  the  supply,  while  the  other 
relates  to  its  sources,  quantity,  and  quality.  Let  us 
consider  the  second  question  first.  In  1891  it  was 
ascertained  that  the  population  supplied  by  the  met- 
ropolitan water-companies  was  5,500,000 ;  and  it  will 
soon  have  reached  6,000,000.  The  net  daily  supply 
in  that  year  averaged  171,000,000  gallons,  or  31  gal- 
lons per  capita  for  all  purposes.  Of  this  amount 
somewhat  more  than  100,000,000  gallons  a  day  was 
pumped  from  the  Thames,  perhaps  50,000,000  from 
the  river  Lea,  and  the  rest  either  from  large  wells  or 
basins  dug  in  gravel  beds  along  the  Thames,  or  else 
from  very  deep  wells  sunk  into  the  chalk  strata  in 
the  territory  lying  east  and  southeast  of  London. 
Much  criticism  has  been  directed  against  the  supply 
both  on  account  of  its  insufficient  quantity  and  also 
on  account  of  its  alleged  impurity.  The  county  coun- 
cil ever  since  its  establishment  has  given  constant 
attention  to  the  subject,  with  a  view  to  its  own  as- 
sumption of  London's  water-supply.  The  council  has 
made  exhaustive  investigations  on  its  own  account, 


Quantity  of 
existing 
supply. 


Sources  of 
supply. 


Public  in- 
quiries. 


276 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


County 
council  and 
royal  com- 
mission. 


A  report  in 

favor  of  the 

Thames. 


Amount 

needed  in 

1931. 


A  per  capita 
daily  allow- 
ance of  35 
gallons. 


and  the  general  government  has  also  dealt  with  the 
question  through  a  royal  commission  which  reported 
in  September,  1893,  after  an  inquiry  of  a  year  and  a 
half.  The  county  council,  represented  by  its  chief 
engineer,  Mr.  Binney,  took  the  ground  in  extensive 
arguments  before  the  royal  commission  that  London's 
present  sources  of  supply  should  be  altogether  aban- 
doned as  no  longer  suitable  as  regards  either  quantity 
or  quality;  and  that  London  should  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  Manchester,  Birmingham,  Liverpool,  and 
Glasgow  in  seeking  a  new  and  inexhaustible  supply 
from  distant  sources.  To  some  mountainous  region 
in  Wales,  it  is  supposed,  London  would  be  compelled 
to  build  its  aqueducts  if  it  should  eventually  conclude 
to  abandon  its  present  sources. 

The  royal  commission,  however,  made  a  highly 
optimistic  report  in  favor  of  the  Thames  and  the  other 
subsidiary  sources  of  the  present  supply.  The  com- 
mission agreed  with  the  London  water-companies  that 
it  would  be  sufficient  to  make  a  forecast  of  forty  years, 
whereas  the  county  council  had  contended  for  the 
consideration  of  a  fifty-year  period.  The  commission 
concluded  that  in  the  year  1931  the  area  now  supplied 
by  the  metropolitan  water-companies  —  which  in  1891 
was  845  square  miles,  and  which  then  contained  5,700,- 
000  people — would  have  an  aggregate  population  of 
11,250,000.  The  question  which  it  set  for  itself  to  an- 
swer then  stood  as  follows :  "  Can  a  sufficient  supply 
of  water  of  sufficiently  good  quality  be  obtained  from 
the  Thames  and  Lea  valleys  for  the  use  of  eleven  and  a 
quarter  million  persons  without  serious  prejudice  to 
the  other  inhabitants  of  those  valleys  ?  "  The  commis- 
sion dealt  in  an  interesting  manner  with  the  question, 
What  is  a  reasonable  per  capita  daily  allowance  of 
water  in  view  of  the  growing  needs  of  a  civilized  town 
population  ?  They  finally  agreed  upon  35  gallons  as  a 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


277 


safe  basis  of  calculation,  declaring  their  belief  that 
this  figure  erred  on  the  side  of  lavishness  if  it  erred  at 
all.  They  found,  then,  that  "  Water  London  "  in  1931 
must  have  a  daily  supply  in  round  figures  of  392,000,- 
000  gallons. 

The  volume  of  water  flowing  down  the  channel  of 
the  Thames  varies  much,  according  to  the  conditions 
of  rainfall ;  but  the  commission,  after  some  sifting  of 
testimony,  found  it  to  average  1,350,000,000  gallons 
a  day  in  that  part  of  the  river  where  the  water-com- 
panies' intakes  are  situated.  Regarding  the  Thames, 
the  commission  reached  the  unanimous  conclusion 
that  300,000,000  gallons  a  day  could  be  withdrawn 
for  water-supply  without  disturbance  of  navigation. 
It  was  shown  that  in  any  case  the  navigable  condi- 
tion is  maintained  by  a  series  of  locks  and  weirs ;  and 
so  long  as  the  stretches  of  the  stream  thus  ponded  up 
are  kept  full,  it  is  a  matter  of  comparatively  little 
consequence  how  much  additional  water  is  flowing 
over  the  dams.  The  only  stretch  where  navigation 
could  be  affected  extends  for  a  mile  or  two  below  the 
lowest  weir,  which  is  at  Richmond ;  and  only  at  the 
lowest  point  of  the  ebb-tide  would  the  depth  of  the 
stream  be  diminished  even  there.  It  was  proposed,  in 
compensation,  that  a  reservoir  should  be  constructed 
in  the  Richmond  Park,  into  which  50,000,000  gallons 
•  would  flow  twice  a  day  with  each  rising  tide,  only  to 
be  released  at  low  tide  as  a  substitute  for  fresh  water 
withdrawn  by  the  metropolitan  intakes  at  a  point 
above  the  weir. 

That  portion  of  the  commission's  inquiry  which 
was  directed  to  the  question  how  great  a  supply 
might  be  derived  from  deep  wells  sunk  in  the  tracts 
of  chalk  country  in  the  Lea  valley  and  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Thames,  was  especially  thorough  and  in- 
teresting. As  a  conclusion  it  was  reported  that 

I.— 18* 


CHAP.  IX. 


What  the 

Thames 

could  yield. 


Effect  upon 
navigation. 


Compensa- 
tion tidal 
reservoir. 


A  supply 

from  wells 

in  the  chalk 

strata. 


278 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Objections 
by  the  coun- 
cil's engi- 
neer. 


A  part  of  the 
true  solu- 
tion. 


Quality  of 

London's 

water. 


Value  of  fil- 
tration. 


about  70,000,000  gallons  a  day  might  safely  be  with- 
drawn from  those  admittedly  pure  and  desirable 
sources  without  injury  to  streams  or  agriculture. 
Thus,  with  50,000,000  gallons  from  the  river  Lea,  the 
commission  had  provided  for  420,000,000  gallons  a 
day,  equal  to  a  supply  of  thirty-five  gallons  per  capita 
for  12,000,000  people.  Mr.  Binney,  the  county  coun- 
cil's chief  engineer,  was  of  opinion  that  every  drop  of 
fresh  water  flowing  down  the  Thames  was  needed  for 
its  purifying  effect  upon  the  sewage  constantly  enter- 
ing the  stream  below  the  city.  The  commissioners 
maintained  that  Mr.  Binney  had  given  undue  weight 
to  this  consideration.  They  might  have  suggested 
what  is,  after  all,  the  most  important  point  to  be 
borne  in  mind :  that  the  true  solution  would  be  the 
withdrawal  of  all  sewage  and  other  sources  of  pollu- 
tion. The  smaller  communities  in  the  Thames  valley 
above  London  are  one  after  another  adopting  sewage- 
farms,  and  it  will  be  feasible  eventually  to  divert 
London's  drainage  away  from  the  river.  When  that 
is  accomplished,  the  flood- tides  will  bring  nothing 
offensive  that  can  require  the  neutralizing  effects  of 
fresh  water.  Moreover,  the  great  bulk  of  the  river's 
average  daily  flow  would  in  any  case  remain  unap- 
propriated. The  commission's  plans  contemplate  a 
great  series  of  storage  reservoirs  at  Staines,  some 
miles  above  London. 

As  to  the  purity  of  the  water  now  supplied  to  Lon- 
don, the  commission  took  much  testimony  with  reas- 
suring results.  It  was  found  that  although  the  exist- 
ing practice  of  the  companies  was  far  from  uniform, 
the  filtration  of  the  supply  had  recently  become  gen- 
eral; and,  as  regards  most  of  the  water  furnished, 
the  work  of  filtration  had  proved  effective.  The  com- 
mission was  aided  by  experts  in  biology,  who  demon- 
strated to  its  satisfaction  that  sand  filtration  not  only 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


279 


removes  deleterious  chemical  substances,  but,  what  is 
far  more  important,  frees  water  from  harmful  bac- 
teria. The  evidence  on  this  point  collected  by  the 
London  commission  antedated  the  most  conclusive 
demonstration  that  has  now  been  made, —  namely,  the 
absolute  success  of  the  new  nitration  works  at  Ham- 
burg1 in  removing  cholera  microbes  from  the  Elbe 
water,  which,  as  pumped  into  the  subsidence-basins, 
had  millions  of  cholera  germs  in  every  cubic  inch. 
The  recent  experience  of  all  the  German  towns  deriv- 
ing their  water-supply  from  the  rivers  Rhine  and  Elbe 
confirms  to  the  point  of  an  absolute  demonstration  the 
position  taken  in  1893  by  the  royal  commission  on  the 
water-supply  of  the  English  metropolis.  It  may  there- 
fore be  considered  as  proved  that  for  a  good  while  to 
come  London  may  continue  to  drink  the  water  of  the 
Thames;  and  the  question  of  an  ultimate  supply  from 
the  mountains  of  Wales  or  elsewhere  may  safely  be 
left  for  consideration  twenty  or  forty  years  hence. 
An  immediate  and  a  pressing  question,  however,  is 
that  of  the  proprietorship  and  administration  of  the 
water-supply.  Eight  water-companies  now  divide  be- 
tween them  the  sources,  the  territory  to  be  supplied, 
and  the  emoluments,  which  are  very  considerable. 
The  New  River  Company,  which  dates  from  the  time 
of  King  James  I.,  supplies  the  central  part  of  the 
metropolis  on  the  north  side  of  the  river,  and  serves 
about  1,200,000  people,  furnishing  about  33,000,000 
gallons  a  day.  The  East  London  Water  Works  Com- 
pany was  formed  in  the  year  1805,  having  absorbed 
two  companies  of  much  earlier  origin,  and  it  also  is  sup- 
plying approximately  1,200,000  people  with  40,000,000 
gallons  a  day,  its  territory  being  that  great  and  popu- 
lous region  extending  from  Whitechapel  and  Stepney 

1  See  "  Hamburg's  New  Sanitary  Impulse,"  by  Albert  Shaw,  in 
the  "Atlantic  Monthly"  for  June,  1894. 


CHAP.  IX. 


Testimony 
sustained  by 
recent  Ger- 
man experi- 
ence. 


Question  of 

public 
ownership. 


The  London 
water-coin- 


280  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ix.  to  West  Ham,  known  as  East  London.  The  Chelsea 
Company  was  chartered  in  1723,  and  supplies  about 
'  Thames.  e  300,000  people  with  nearly  10,000,000  gallons  a  day. 
The  West  Middlesex  Company  was  incorporated  in 
1806,  and  it  supplies  about  600,000  people  at  the  West 
End  with  16,000,000  gallons  a  day.  The  Grand  Junc- 
tion Company  also  has  its  sphere  of  operations  in  a 
number  of  the  extensive  parishes  of  West  London,  and 
it  supplies  350,000  people  with  17,000,000  gallons  — 
much  the  most  liberal  per  capita  supply  of  any  London 
company.  It  dates  from  1798.  The  Lambeth  Water 
Works  Company  and  the  Southwark  and  Vauxhall 

South  of  the  \      J 

Thames.  Company  divide  between  them  most  of  London  south 
of  the  Thames,  including  also  great  suburban  areas 
in  the  county  of  Surrey  that  lie  beyond  the  London 
metropolis.  The  Lambeth  Company  was  first  incor- 
porated in  1785,  and  the  Vauxhall  Company  began 
operations  in  1805,  although  both  companies  have 
had  several  subsequent  charters  which  extended  their 
franchises  to  greater  areas.  The  Lambeth  Company 
in  1891  supplied  a  population  of  655,000  people  with 
20,000,000  gallons  a  day,  and  the  Vauxhall  Company 
supplied  about  850,000  people  with  24,000,000  gallons. 
Finally,  the  Kent  Water  Works  Company,  incorpo- 
rated in  1809,  operates  in  a  number  of  far  eastern 
parishes  south  of  the  Thames,  and  in  1891  was  sup- 
plying 460,000  people  with  12,500,000  gallons  daily. 
Water  These  companies,  by  the  terms  of  their  charters, 
charges  have  been  allowed  to  levy  certain  statutory  rates  based 

based  on 

rentals,  upon  the  rental  valuation  of  the  houses  supplied. 
The  arrangement  is  an  antiquated  one,  dating  from  a 
period  when  frequent  revaluations  of  property  were 
unknown.  The  actual  consequences  have  been,  dur- 
ing several  past  decades,  that  with  every  increase  in  the 
assessed  valuation  of  a  house  or  piece  of  property  the 
water-company  supplying  that  house  has  been  able  to 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


281 


increase  the  amount  of  the  yearly  water  tax,  although    CHAP.  ix. 
upon  the  average  there  has  been  actual  diminution  in 
the  quantity  of  water  supplied  from  year  to  year  to 

11  mu  u          c  t.  j.     u  v    j  -L.  Insufficient 

each  house.  The  number  or  houses  to  be  supplied  has  service. 
increased  more  rapidly  than  the  supplies  which  the 
companies  found  available  for  distribution.  As  a  re- 
sult, down  to  1887,  or  later,  only  about  half  the  houses 
in  London  were  receiving  a  continuous  supply.  They 
were  compelled  to  store  in  tanks  or  cisterns  enough 
water  to  meet  the  wants  of  those  portions  of  the  day 
or  night  when  their  supply  was  turned  off  by  the  com- 
pany. Public  feeling  against  the  companies  has  grown 
so  intense  that  they  have  made  strenuous  efforts  to 
give  an  improved  service;  and  within  the  past  five 
years  the  continuous  supply  has  been  extended  to  the 
great  majority  of  London  houses.  It  still  remains 
true,  however,  that  the  companies  are  in  the  absurd 

../,,.  •,  An  oppres- 

position  of  being  able  to  levy  a  fixed  statutory  rate  sive  system. 
on  the  pound  of  assessed  valuation,  and  thus  to  col- 
lect an  increased  sum  every  five  years,  wherever  the 
assessed  value  of  property  advances. 

It  was  alleged  several  years  ago  that  it  cost  the 
companies  less  than  £700,000  a  year  to  supply  London 
with  water,  for  which  the  people  of  London  had  to  pay 
the  companies  £1,700,000.  The  receipts  have  now  in- 
creased to  nearly  £2,000,000,  or  $10,000,000.  The  com- 
panies are  paying  dividends  on  a  share  capital  of 
some  $75,000,000,  and  it  is  alleged  by  the  experts  of 
the  county  council  that  the  aggregate  plants  of  the 
eight  companies  could  be  duplicated  and  greatly  im- 
proved by  the  expenditure  of  $50,000,000.  No  one 
would  have  the  audacity  to  dispute  the  proposition 
that  the  people  of  London  could  easily  provide  them-  what  public 

i  i   .1  «  -t     •  .  management 

selves,  through  the  agency  of  their  representative  county   would  save. 
council,  with  a  much  more  satisfactory  system  than  the 
present  one,  while  reducing  the  water  rates  at  least 


Income  and 
capital. 


282 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT   IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Valuing  the 
works. 


How  the 
companies 
are  pro- 
tected. 


A  conspiracy 
of  "  inter- 
ests." 


A  weakening 
opposition. 


fifty  per  cent.  The  county  council  has  been  negotiat- 
ing for  the  purchase  of  the  properties  and  rights  of 
the  existing  companies,  but  thus  far  no  basis  of  agree- 
ment has  been  reached  because  the  companies  have 
insisted  upon  an  aggregate  valuation  of  from  $150,- 
000,000  to  $250,000,000,  nearly  all  of  which  is  repre- 
sented by  the  revenue-producing  values  of  the  public 
franchises  which  have  cost  the  companies  nothing. 

The  solution  of  the  question  would  be  a  very  simple 
one  if  it  were  not  for  the  House  of  Lords.  The  House 
of  Commons  would  readily  pass  a  measure  giving  the 
county  council  authority  at  its  option  either  to  nego- 
tiate for  the  existing  works,  or  to  establish  an  inde- 
pendent system,  forbidding  the  companies  to  increase 
their  takings  from  the  Thames,  and  sanctioning  the 
use  of  the  river  by  the  council.  This  would  bring  the 
companies  to  terms  at  once ;  for  the  people  of  London 
could  readily  provide  themselves  with  a  duplicate  sys- 
tem at  one  third  of  the  price  that  the  companies  have 
demanded  for  their  antiquated  establishments.  Public 
control  of  London's  water  is,  of  course,  only  a  ques- 
tion of  time.  Nothing  is  more  readily  apparent  to 
any  foreign  observer  of  English  affairs  than  the  fact 
that  there  exists  what  is  virtually  a  huge  conspiracy 
of  tl  interests,"  monopolies,  and  privileged  groups,  all 
of  which  rely  ultimately  upon  the  aid  and  counte- 
nance of  the  House  of  Lords,  and  its  constitutional 
right  to  veto  the  legislation  of  the  people's  represen- 
tatives in  Parliament.  But  the  position  of  the  House 
of  Lords  itself  has  now  become  somewhat  critical ;  and 
that  distinguished  body  can  hardly  find  it  convenient 
to  lend  itself  too  insistently  to  a  scheme  for  compelling 
the  people  of  London  to  pay  an  extra  hundred  million 
dollars  to  a  group  of  private  companies  in  order  to 
buy  back  what  they  have  never  sold, —  namely,  the 
natural  right  to  supply  themselves  with  the  most  es- 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


283 


sential  of  all  commodities.  Justice  in  this  case  is  so 
clear  that  it  must  soon  prevail  over  monopoly  claims. 

One  of  the  most  important  functions  that  the  county 
council  acquired  in  its  capacity  as  heir  to  the  under- 
takings of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works,  was 
that  of  the  maintenance  and  improvement  of  a  main 
thoroughfare  system.  A  street-map  of  London  as  the 
city  was  in  1840  or  1850  would  be  necessary  to  make 
plain  all  the  improvements  that  have  been  wrought, 
especially  in  the  central  districts  lying  within  four  or 
five  miles  of  Charing  Cross.  As  the  metropolis  grew, 
the  pressure  of  traffic  upon  its  central  thoroughfares 
naturally  became  enormous.  It  was  necessary,  at 
great  cost,  to  widen  and  straighten  important  streets, 
and  to  open  new  thoroughfares.  Thus  great  improve- 
ments were  made  in  the  lines  of  streets  that  lead  from 
Charing  Cross  to  the  Bank.  It  became  imperative  to 
create  other  arteries  between  the  City  and  the  West 
End  ;  and  the  Holborn  Viaduct,  with  High  Holborn 
and  New  Oxford  streets,  was  constructed.  Queen 
Victoria  street  and  the  magnificent  Thames  embank- 
ments constituted  still  another  new  route  created  with 
the  outlay  of  millions.  The  Northumberland  Avenue, 
the  Gray's  Inn  Road,  the  Charing  Cross  Road,  and 

/..i  •  t  a  i 

dozens  of  other  now  important  thoroughfares,  have 
been  cut  through  solid  masses  of  buildings,  involving 
heavy  financial  operations  in  condemning  property, 
clearing  sites,  constructing  the  streets,  and  reselling 
the  new  street  frontage. 

London,  like  many  other  old  cities,  had  a  tangled 
network  of  streets  that  for  the  most  part  began  no- 
where and  ended  nowhere.  Upon  this  network  it 
became  necessary  to  supenmpose  a  system  of  main 
thoroughfares  as  avenues  of  communication.  This 
work  had  begun,  either  under  the  authorities  of  the 


CHAP-  IX- 


Astern  of 

chief  thor- 


Great  re 


tan  board. 


ew  central 

arteries. 


, 

Mamarteries 

of  traffic. 


284 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  ix.  City  corporation  or  under  special  parliamentary  com- 
missions, long  before  the  day  of  the  metropolitan 
board;  but  this  body  accomplished  the  major  part. 
Including  the  splendid  river  boulevards  and  retain- 
ing-walls  known  as  the  Albert,  Victoria,  and  Chelsea 
embankments,  I  find  that  the  metropolitan  board 
from  1856  to  1887  had  expended  about  $75,000,000 
cost  of  chief  upon  these  main  street  improvements,  during  which 

st.i'fct  lift"  ,  ,  A       <  1*1  i 

provements.  time  the  outlying  parts  of  the  metropolis  had  added 
to  the  ordinary  street  system  about  2000  miles  of  new 
thoroughfares,  lined  with  several  hundred  thousand 
new  houses.  But  the  cost  of  these  local  streets  had 
been  locally  defrayed ;  and  it  is  to  the  expense  of 
main  arterial  improvements  that  I  refer.  Including 
what  the  City  and  special  commissions  have  spent, 
not  less  than  $100,000,000  has  gone  into  this  work  of 
reforming  the  vicious  street  system  of  London  since 
1850.  And  still  the  task  is  far  from  completed.  New 
lines  of  communication  must  yet  be  made  to  relieve 
the  glut  of  traffic  on  east  and  west  routes  north  of  the 
Thames. 

Only  a  competent  central  authority  like  the  new 
council  can  manage  these  gigantic  municipal  reforms 
in  the  suitable  way.  But  while  these  main  improve- 
ments have  been  in  progress,  it  should  be  said  in  jus- 
tice to  the  vestries  and  district  boards  that  the  net- 
work of  lesser  streets  has  been  wonderfully  changed 
for  the  better,  and  that  London  as  a  whole  is  now 
also  a  well-paved  city.  It  devolves  upon  the  council, 
as  upon  its  predecessor  the  Board  of  Works,  to  regu- 
late the  width  and  formation  of  new  streets,  the  lin- 
ing of  the  buildings,  the  naming  of  streets,  and  the 
numbering  of  houses.  Unfortunately  the  metropolis 
was  already  far  too  large  when  this  power  was  given 
to  a  central  authority.  There  are  fine  avenues  in  the 
newer  suburbs ;  but  throughout  most  of  the  metropo- 


The  lesser 
street  sys- 
tem —  good 
paving. 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PEOBLEMS  285 

lis  the  lesser  streets  must  remain  in  a  condition  that  CHAP,  ix 
to  an  American  seems  painfully  chaotic.  An  impor- 
tant work  had  been  done  by  the  metropolitan  board 
in  constructing  Thames  bridges,  but  the  supply  was 
wholly  insufficient.  The  county  council  now  main-  bridges. 
tains  ten  great  bridges  across  the  Thames,  while  four 
(the  Blackfriars,  the  South wark,  the  London,  and  the 
new  Tower  bridge)  are  cared  for  by  the  old  City  cor- 
poration out  of  the  revenues  of  its  ancient  Bridge 
House  Estate.  The  county  council  is  completing  an 
enormous  tunnel  under  the  river  at  Blackwall,  at  a 
cost  of  $5,000,000,  and  has  obtained  terminal  sites  for 
another  tunnel.  In  lieu  of  a  bridge  for  the  East  Lon- 
doners at  Woolwich,  the  council  operates  a  free  ferry 

}  *  J       Woolwich 

for  passengers  and  vehicles.  The  opening  of  this  ferry  free  ferry. 
was  one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  county  council.  That 
it  supplied  a  serious  want  was  demonstrated  by  the 
fact  that  4,000,000  people  a  year  were  soon  making 
use  of  it.  Indeed,  the  statistics  that  show  the  in- 
crease of  traffic  across  the  Thames  are  very  remarka- 
ble. The  council  is  entering,  upon  the  work  of  recon- 
structing Vauxhall  bridge  at  a  cost  of  $2,500,000,  and 

•          *  u    -^  i,      i      -vl  Further 

a  long  series  or  new  bridges  to  be  built  and  old  ones  bridge  work. 
to  be  made  over  forms  part  .of  the  forecast  of  munici- 
pal undertakings  for  the  coming  twenty  years. 

The  council  since  its  succession  to  the  street-im- 
provement work  of  the  metropolitan  board  has  not 
been  lacking  in  ambition  to  accomplish  great  projects 
of  reform.  It  has  definitely  mapped  out  schemes  of  a 
central  character  that  would  cost  millions  upon  mil-  improve- 
lions.  One  of  these  is  a  widening  of  the  Strand  in  its  "gJkms™ 
narrowest  sections,  and  another  is  a  great  new  thor- 
oughfare to  connect  Holborn  street  with  the  Strand. 
The  task  of  most  immediate  urgency  is  the  construc- 
tion of  a  system  of  approaches  to  the  new  Tower 
bridge.  But  while  the  council  has  proceeded  to  exe- 


286  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ix.  cute  numerous  street-improvement  projects  of  a  less 
costly  nature,  it  has  taken  the  position  with  regard  to 
all  large  schemes  that  it  will  hold  them  in  abeyance 

Awaiting     until  it  wins  its  battle  in  Parliament  for  a  new  system 

taxation  re- 
form, of  taxation  that  will  place  a  part  of  the  burden  of  per- 
manent improvements  upon  the  owners  of  the  property 
that  is  chiefly  benefited.  The  Board  of  Works  exe- 
cuted its  huge  improvements,  on  a  recklessly  extrav- 
agant scale,  at  the  expense  of  the  ratepayers  of  the 
metropolis ;  and  not  a  penny  was  paid  by  the  wealthy 
landowners,  the  value  of  whose  property  was  in  many 
instances  more  than  doubled.  All  London  improve- 
ments have  hitherto  proceeded  on  the  principle  that 
the  public  must  pay  full  damages  to  any  owner  who 
can  show  himself  injured,  while  the  public  may  not 
recoup  itself  at  all  by  assessing  part  of  the  cost  of  the 
improvement  on  those  who  are  enriched  by  it. 

The  London  rates  are  all  paid  by  the  occupiers, — 
i.  e.,  by  the  tenants, —  and  the  cost  of  permanent  im- 
provements, no  less  than  ordinary  administrative  out- 
lays, must  all  be  defrayed  out  of  ordinary  rates  levied 
upon  occupiers  in  proportion  to  the  rental  value  of 
the  premises  they  rent.  Unbuilt  areas,  held  by  land- 

The  exempt-  r  J ,  J 

ed landlords,  lords  for  speculative  increase  of  values,  are  not  rated 
at  all.  It  is  not  denied  that  some  large  though  inde- 
terminate part  of  the  rates  paid  by  occupiers  must  in 
the  long  run  affect  the  rent  charges,  and  must  there- 
fore act  indirectly  as  a  tax  upon  the  landlords  and 

Is  the  bur-  *  f 

den  shifted  ?  house-owners.  But  the  occupiers  do  not  believe  that 
the  burden  is  thus  shifted ;  and  certainly  in  the  case  of 
huge  improvements  that  forthwith  enrich  the  land- 
owners of  a  distinct  metropolitan  street  or  area,  it  is 
both  absurd  and  oppressive  to  charge  the  cost  upon 
the  ratepayers  of  the  whole  vast  community.  In 
America  we  should  collect  all  or  most  of  the  cost  by 
means  of  "special  assessments"  levied  against  benefited 


287 

property.    The  approaches  to  the  new  Tower  bridge    CHAP.  ix. 
constitute  a  particularly  aggravated  case,  and  the 
county  council  has  declared  that  it  will  not  proceed     "^y*?- 

•*  *  ment    de- 

to  construct   them  until  Parliament  sanctions  the     manded. 
"  betterment "  principle. 

Again,  it  is  the  House  of  Lords  that  stands  in  the 
way.  The  House  of  Commons  in  the  session  of 
1893-94  passed  a  London  improvement  bill  which 
authorized  the  council  to  assess  neighboring  property 
for  a  part  of  the  cost  of  certain  specified  improve- 
ments ;  but  the  House  of  Lords  amended  the  bill  by  ^jsse  °£_ 
throwing  out  this  special-taxation  clause.  The  Com-  tectsix>ndon 

ground-own- 

mons  refused  to  accept  the  amendment,  and  the  sub-  erf*- 
ject  was  left  in  abeyance,  with  the  practical  certainty 
that  the  Lords  would  not  be  able  to  resist  public  opin- 
ion on  the  "betterment"  question  for  more  than  a  year 
or  two  longer.  The  value  of  London  real  estate  in- 
creases by  millions  every  year  not  through  any  effort 
on  the  part  of  landowners  as  such,  but  through  the 
general  advancement  of  a  community  whose  real 
wealth-makers  are  its  working-people,  from  the  prime 
minister  to  the  humblest  laborer  or  apprentice  boy, 
toiling  with  brain  or  hand  in  the  accomplishment  of 
the  varied  tasks  of  our  modern  civilization.  A  local- 
taxation  system  which  unsparingly  reaches  the  poorest 
working-man,  but  exempts  the  landowner,  and  regards 
the  "unearned  increment"  as  something  more  invio-  susthe"urn. 
lable  than  wages  or  human  life,  is  an  abomination, 
While  in  so  many  regards  the  London  people  are  in 
the  very  forefront  of  progress,  they  are  in  other  re- 
spects the  most  laggard,  the  most  benighted,  and  the 
most  wronged  and  oppressed  by  conspiracies  of  priv- 
ilege and  monopoly,  of  all  the  denizens  of  modern 
cities.  They  are  destined  to  shake  off  their  bonds,  but 
the  struggle  will  be  severe.  And  there  is  some  ground 
for  anxiety  lest  the  reaction  may  carry  them  too  far 


288  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ix.  toward  socialism.  But  the  "  betterment "  principle  does 
not  even  savor  of  socialism  or  of  economic  heresy. 

When  the  county  council  was  first  organized  in 
1889,  the  standing  committee  on  which  the  largest 
number  of  members  desired  to  serve  was  that  upon 

interest  in    the  "housing  of  the  working-classes."    The  subject 

question"8  of  London  housing  had  been  much  agitated  for  several 
years,  and  the  necessity  for  reforms  had  been  quite 
universally  admitted.  The  county  council,  under  the 
great  housing  act  of  1890,  became  the  authority  in 
which  was  vested  the  work  of  carrying  out  all  such 
schemes  as  that  of  the  radical  treatment  of  insanitary 
areas.  The  earliest  task  of  the  committee  was  that 
of  a  careful  survey  of  the  facts;  and  it  had  soon 
mapped  out  several  scores  of  slum  spots  of  greater 
or  less  extent  which  in  its  judgment  demanded  drastic 

inquiries,  remedial  treatment.  The  masterly  and  methodical 
inquiries  which  Mr.  Charles  Booth  had  prosecuted  in 
respect  to  the  housing,  the  poverty,  and  all  the  con- 
ditions of  labor  and  employment  of  the  London  pop- 
ulation, lent  both  impulse  and  information  to  the 
practical  studies  upon  which  the  council  entered. 

The  committee  also  made  it  a  part  of  its  duties  to 
find  scattered  instances  of  unhealthy  dwellings,  and 
to  report  these  to  the  district  and  parish  authorities. 

"°nzeaL°U9  The  reforming  zeal  of  the  enthusiasts  of  the  county 
council  proved  contagious,  and  the  medical  health  of- 
ficers of  the  parochial  and  district  boards  began  to 
cooperate  with  efficiency.  It  was  largely  due  to  the 
i89o.  county  council  that  Parliament  in  1890  consolidated, 
revised,  and  in  various  ways  improved  the  body  of 
legislation  relating  to  housing  reforms  which  had 
been  accumulating  on  the  statute-books  for  forty 
years.  The  first  part  of  this  act  of  1890  relates  to 
the  treatment  of  considerable  areas,  the  second  part 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


289 


to  the  condemning  and  demolition  of  individual 
houses,  and  the  third  part  to  the  public  provision  of 
workmen's  dwellings.  The  council  in  its  preliminary 
survey  of  housing  conditions  in  the  metropolis  had 
found  that  a  portion  of  the  parish  of  Bethnal  Green 
in  East  London  was  in  a  miserable  state  of  dilapida- 
tion. An  area  of  some  fifteen  acres  was  covered  with 
ancient  two-story  cottages  facing  on  streets  barely 
eighteen  feet  wide,  and  with  the  diminutive  back-yard 
spaces  completely  filled  with  outbuildings  and  work- 
shops. Bethnal  Green  had  once  been  a  thriving  com- 
munity of  Huguenot  weavers  who  had  taken  refuge 
in  England  from  persecution  in  France,  and  had  dom- 
iciled themselves  in  what  was  then  a  little  village  in 
the  suburbs  of  London.  But  Bethnal  Green  had  been 
swallowed  up  in  the  growth  of  the  metropolis,  and  its 
tiny  cottages  had  become  packed  with  a  slum  popula- 
tion of  the  worst  sort.  The  county  council  found  five 
or  six  thousand  people  living  in  this  area  of  fifteen 
acres,  crowded  into  seven  hundred  and  fourteen  low 
cottages.  It  was  determined  that  the  neighborhood 
should  be  reconstructed  in  such  a  manner  as  to  furnish 
an  object-lesson.  The  council's  scheme  was  sanctioned 
in  July,  1891,  and  then  the  tedious  process  of  acquir- 
ing the  property  was  begun.  Claims  to  the  amount 
of  $2,500;000  were  presented  by  the  owners  of  this 
pestilential  slum,  but  official  appraisers  reduced  the 
inordinate  claims,  and  the  council  came  into  posses- 
sion for  somewhat  less  than  $1,500,000.  Then  en- 
sued the  work  of  rearrangement.  The  Housing  of 
the  Working  Classes  Act  of  1890  requires  that  every 
scheme  for  the  demolition  of  insanitary  dwellings  by 
London  authorities  shall  be  accompanied  by  a  scheme 
for  rehousing  in  a  suitable  way  as  many  people  as  are 
affected  by  the  demolition ;  and  that  in  London  such 
compensatory  housing  shall  be  either  upon  the  sites 

I.- 19 


CHAP.  IX. 


A  shocking 

slum  in  East 

London. 


Bethnal 
Green's  con- 
demnation. 


Buying  up 
the  prop- 
erty. 


Demolition 
of  seven 
hundred 
houses. 


290  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ix.  that  have  been  cleared,  or  else  in  the  same  district 
and  within  convenient  distances.  The  reconstruction 
project  for  Bethnal  Green,  known  as  the  "  Boundary 

plans  of  re-  Street  Scheme,"  has  an  attractive  street  plan  that 
tion.  suggests  a  Parisian  Place  de  I'JJ/totte  on  a  diminutive 
scale.  In  the  center  is  a  band-stand,  surrounded  by 
a  public  garden  of  an  acre  or  more,  with  a  street  en- 
circling it.  From  this  circle  seven  streets  radiate, 
and  connect  the  area  with  the  street  system  of  the 
general  district.  In  place  of  the  old  eighteen  foot 
streets,  the  county  council  has  laid  out  streets  that 
are  from  forty  to  sixty  feet  wide. 

In  planning  its  new  tenement-houses,  the  council 
conformed  scrupulously  with  the  principles  and  pro- 
visions that  its  committee  on  building  by-laws  had 
embodied  in  its  new  measure  for  the  regulation  of 

The  coun-  building  in  the  metropolis.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
select  any  topic  with  which  the  county  council  has 
had  to  deal  that  is  more  important  than  that  of  the 
proper  regulation  of  new  housing ;  and  its  proposals 
as  embodied  in  a  bill  which  Parliament  will  undoubt- 
edly sanction  must  be  productive  of  the  most  salu- 
tary results.  So  far  as  the  new  building  regulations 
relate  to  sanitary  conditions,  they  deal  with  court  and 
back-yard  areas,  with  the  height  of  buildings,  with  the 
depth  and  use  of  basements,  and  with  the  height  of 
ceilings,  and  they  enter  with  great  minuteness  into 
every  detail  as  to  admission  of  light  and  air  to 
rooms  occupied  as  human  habitations.  They  pre- 
scribe the  minimum  size  of  living-rooms,  and  in  gen- 
eral they  lay  down  a  system  which  would  of  itself 
make  practically  impossible  any  very  dangerous  con- 
gestion of  population  in  the  neighborhoods  constructed 
under  its  regulations. 

To  return  to  the  Bethnal  Green  scheme,  then,  it 
may  be  said  that  while  the  rows  of  new  municipal 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS  291 

houses  are  not  to  be  all  exactly  alike,  the  standard    CHAP.  ix. 
plan  that  has  been  adopted  provides  for  tenements  of 

Tlic  new 

five  stories,  with  a  height  from  the  sidewalk  of  about  homes  in 
forty-five  feet,  the  front  line  being  set  back  some  eight  ore™, 
feet  from  a  forty-foot  street,  and  the  area  space  in  the 
rear  being  from  forty  to  forty-five  feet  wide,  to  allow 
abundance  of  light  and  air  and  to  afford  playroom 
for  children.  The  tenements  are  all  divided  into  fam- 
ily apartments  of  two  rooms  and  three  rooms.  There 
are  no  one-room  apartments,  and  none  larger  than 
those  containing  three  rooms ;  but  the  sanitary  con- 
veniences have  been  planned  with  great  skill,  and 
when  the  entire  scheme  of  reconstruction  is  completed 
this  county-council  village  in  East  London  will  con- 
tain the  best-planned  dwellings  for  very  poor  people 
that  can  be  found  in  London. 

For  several  decades,  under  semi-philanthropic  aus- 

^  v.  3  j.    •       T         j  "Model- 

plCeS,  there  has  progressed  a  movement  in  London     tenement 

for  the  construction  of  what  are  called  "  model "  tene-  London.' 
ment-house  blocks.  The  best-known  of  these  struc- 
tures are  the  Peabody  Fund  tenement-houses.  The 
ordinary  type  of  working-man's  home  in  London  is 
the  small,  old-fashioned  house  commonly  of  two  sto- 
ries, sometimes  of  three.  The  model  tenement  intro- 
duces in  London  the  innovation  of  the  five-  or  six- 
story  flatted  structure  built  for  many  families,  and 
housing  from  100  to  1000  people.  There  are  now 
some  600  buildings  in  London  that  belong  to  this 
class,  with  a  total  capacity  of  perhaps  120,000  people. 
The  houses  provided  from  time  to  time  out  of  the  Peabody 
proceeds  of  the  Peabody  Fund  now  shelter  a  popula-  houses. 
tion  of  20,000.  Many  of  these  600  buildings  have 
been  constructed  by  commercial  companies  with  a 
suggestion  of  philanthropy  about  them,  but  with 
more  regard  to  dividends  than  to  the  real  welfare 
of  the  working-classes  j  and  not  a  few  of  them  are 


292 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Disapproval 
of  this  type. 


A  congeries 
of  villages. 


Need  of 
measures  to 

check  bad 
building  in 

suburbs. 


defective  in  their  sanitary  arrangements,  and  are  to  be 
condemned  on  the  ground  that  the  death-rate  in  them 
is  very  considerably  higher  than  the  average  for  all 
London.  The  Peabody  houses  are  excellent,  and  show 
a  favorable  death-rate.  But  as  to  this  system  of  great, 
swarming,  tenement  hives,  the  best  London  opinion 
does  not  approve  of  it 5  and  the  housing  reformers  no 
longer  look  to  it  as  providing  a  solution  for  the  prob- 
lem of  the  better  housing  of  London's  working-people. 
Metropolitan  London  is  essentially  a  congeries  of 
old  villages  which  in  the  last  fifty  years  have  grown 
together  and  been  encompassed  in  an  ever  expanding 
sea  of  houses.  The  breathing-places  have  been  al- 
most wholly  covered  with  additional  structures,  and 
the  passages  are  narrow.  If  the  streets  could  be 
widened,  and  larger  court  spaces  restored,  the  grad- 
ual rehousing  of  the  population  under  a  modified  sys- 
tem of  apartment  buildings  like  those  of  the  county 
council  in  Bethnal  Green  would  be  advantageous. 
Even  yet,  however,  the  greatest  need  is  for  measures  of 
prevention.  Nowhere  is  the  suburban  tendency  more 
striking  than  in  London  ;  and  the  chief  care  of  the 
housing  reformers  should  be  to  protect  future  gener- 
ations against  the  greed  of  speculators  who  are  now 
acquiring  the  building  sites  in  outlying  districts,  lay- 
ing them  out  with  narrow  streets,  and  covering  them 
with  flimsily  constructed  small  houses.  In  many  cases 
the  scenes  of  these  speculative  operations  lie  beyond  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  county  council,  but  the  local  authori- 
ties in  the  so-called  "  outer  ring  "  are  coming  under  the 
influence  of  the  county  council  in  many  ways,  and  they 
may  yet  be  induced  to  prescribe  proper  regulations. 

In  1891,  under  representations  made  by  the  county 
council,  Parliament  passed  the  Public  Health  Act  for 
London,  the  provisions  of  which  fell  to  the  supervision 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


293 


trains. 


of  the  housing  committee,  which  has  since  that  time  CHAP.  ix. 
performed  its  work  under  the  name  of  the  "public 
health  and  housing  committee."  Its  duties  include 
the  inspection  of  workshops  and  factories  to  see  that 
they  do  not  offend  against  sanitary  regulations,  and 
are  extended  to  various  other  tasks  in  the  interest 
of  the  health  and  safety  of  the  community.  To  no 
topic  has  this  committee  given  more  attention  than 
to  that  of  the  provision  of  workmen's  suburban  trains 
by  the  great  railways  which  have  their  terminal  sta- 
tions in  the  heart  of  the  metropolis,  and  whose  lines 
cross  the  "outer  ring"  at  twenty  points  or  more.  The 
railways  have  received  many  public  privileges,  and 
their  rates  and  the  details  of  their  management  fall 
to  a  certain  extent  under  control  of  Parliament  and 
the  general  government.  The  public  health  and 
housing  committee  of  the  county  council  takes  the 
broad  view  that  the  best  service  it  can  render  to  the 
working-men  of  London  is  to  make  it  possible  for  them 
to  live  in  the  outskirts.  Rapid,  cheap,  and  convenient  cheap  and 
transit  is  therefore  the  watchword  of  the  county  coun- 
cil.  To  this  end  it  has  made  exhaustive  statistical 
reports  upon  the  existing  supply  of  working-men's 
morning  and  evening  suburban  trains  on  the  London 
railways;  has  communicated  with  the  railway  com- 
panies, urging  more  favorable  terms  for  working-men  ; 
and  has  shown  great  energy  in  promoting  bills  in 
Parliament  regarding  the  insertion  of  clauses  provid- 
ing for  working-men's  trains  in  all  bills  that  in  any 
wise  confer  privileges  upon  railway  companies.  The 
council  has  also  procured  statistical  data  from  con- 
tinental cities,  which  it  has  brought  into  comparison 
with  corresponding  London  statistics,  in  order  to  show 
how  much  more  favorable  are  the  provisions  for 
working-men's  suburban  transit  in  Berlin  and  other 
European  cities  than  in  London. 

L—  19* 


statistical 
data- 


294 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


The  true 
solution  of 

density 
problems. 


The  rise  of 
transit  facil- 
ities. 


Re-grouping 
of  popula- 
tion-masses. 


Rapid  de- 
cline of  the 
central  dis- 
tricts. 


In  its  efforts  to  facilitate  the  existing  suburban  ten- 
dency, the  county  council  has  really  placed  itself  in 
harmony  with  all  the  forces  that  are  unconsciously 
working  toward  the  true  solution  of  the  problems  of 
density  and  overcrowding.  Forty  years  ago  it  was 
practically  impossible  for  a  poor  man,  even  for  a  clerk 
in  a  City  bank,  to  live  beyond  walking  distance  from 
his  work.  Such  stage-coaches  as  then  plied  between 
London  and  the  suburban  towns  were  far  too  expen- 
sive for  men  of  humble  means  to  use  as  a  daily  luxury. 
To-day  London  is  served  by  many  thousands  of  cheap 
omnibuses,  which  cover  all  parts  of  the  metropolitan 
district  with  astonishing  efficiency.  Besides  the  omni- 
bus service  there  are  systems  of  tram  lines  or  street 
railways  in  North  London,  South  London,  and  East 
London  —  aggregating  125  street  miles  of  trackage, 
and  considerably  promoting  the  inward  and  outward 
daily  movements  of  population.  The  inner  and  outer 
circles  of  underground  railways  are  also  an  important 
adjunct ;  and,  finally,  the  great  railway  lines  provide 
means  of  transit  for  the  more  distant  suburbs. 

The  effect  of  all  these  transit  facilities,  imperfect 
though  the  system  is  as  yet,  has  begun  to  be  shown  in 
a  remarkable  rearrangement  of  the  population.  A  few 
decades  ago  the  inner  City  contained  a  population  of 
100,000.  The  census  of  1891  showed  only  37,000,  and 
the  ebb-tide  has  not  yet  ceased  to  flow.  What  is  true 
of  the  City  of  London  in  a  high  degree  is  true  of  the 
other  central  parishes  and  districts  only  in  smaller 
measure.  Thus  in  the  decade  from  1881  to  1891,  West- 
minster lost  20  per  cent,  of  its  population ;  the  Strand 
district,  18.2  per  cent. ;  St.  Giles,  12.1  per  cent. ;  Mary- 
lebone,  8  per  cent.  In  general,  since  1861  there  has 
been  a  gradual  decline  in  the  inhabitancy  of  that  cen- 
tral area — comprising  both  the  fashionable  West  End 
districts  and  the  unfashionable  parishes  of  East  Lon- 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS  295 

don  —  which  contains  the  innermost  million  of  the    CHAP.  ix. 
London  population.    This  central  area  in  1861  con-      Lossof 
tained  nearly  1,200,000  people.   In  1891  it  could  claim   200,000  peo- 

J       '          '  r      r  pie  in  thirty 

barely  1,000,000  people.    Its  falling  off  has  been  at  an       years, 
increasing  rate,  the  percentages  of  decline  for  the  three 
decades  being  respectively  2.7,  4.6,  and  7.2  per  cent. 
Meanwhile,  the  rest  of  London  inside  the  county  coun- 
cil area  has  been  growing.    In  1861  this  outer  zone  of    outer  zone, 
the  metropolis  contained  1,600,000  people,  and  in  1891 
it  contained  3,200,000. 

These  three  millions  and  more  may  be  said,  in  a 
general  way,  to  be  the  population  served  by  the  omni-  omnibus 
buses  and  tram  lines.  Whereas  their  numbers  had  ancars?e" 
grown  by  30  per  cent,  between  1861  and  1871,  and  by 
29  per  cent,  in  the  next  decade,  they  grew  by  less 
than  18  per  cent,  between  1881  and  1891.  But  this 
was  only  because  the  so-called  "outer  ring,"  lying 
beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  county  council  but  in- 
side the  metropolitan  police  area,  was  receiving  the 
surplus  population.  This  "outer  ring"  has  been 
growing  since  1861  at  the  rate  of  50  per  cent,  each  The  zone  of 

13  *f  suburban 

decade.  It  had  scarcely  400,000  inhabitants  in  1861,  trains- 
and  more  than  1,400,000  in  1891.  Half  a  million  people 
had  been  added  to  the  population  of  this  zone  of  outer 
parishes  between  1881  and  1891.  These  people,  now 
exceeding  a  million  and  a  half,  may  in  an  approximate 
fashion  be  regarded  as  Londoners  who  are  dependent 
upon  the  suburban  trains  of  the  great  railways,  in  so 
far  as  their  daily  work  takes  them  from  circumference 
to  center. 

It  has  been    customary  to    call   the  police    area 
"  Greater  London  " ;  but  in  point  of  fact  there  is  now 
growing  up  outside  of  the  police  area  still  another      Anew 
outermost  zone  of  London  suburbs,  at  a  distance  of       belt. 
from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  miles  from  Charing  Cross, 
which  is  taken  as  the  center  of  the  metropolis.   It  may 


296 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


The  metro- 
politan over- 
flow. 


Universality 
of  suburban 
movement. 


Interesting 

case  of 
Liverpool. 


Districts  of 

most  rapid 

growth  in 

London. 


West  Hani, 

Willesden, 

Ley  ton,  and 

Croydon. 


be  predicted  that  computations  after  the  next  census  in 
1901  will  show  that  this  outermost  belt,  not  now  com- 
prised in  any  of  the  different  London  circumscriptions, 
has  lately  been  growing  by  the  process  of  metropolitan 
overflow  at  a  higher  rate  per  cent,  than  any  of  the 
series  of  concentric  zones  lying  nearer  the  center. 

This  remarkable  new  suburban  movement,  it  may 
be  noted  in  passing,  belongs  to  the  area  of  improved 
transit  facilities ;  and  it  is  not  by  any  means  peculiar 
to  London.  It  is  almost  equally  apparent  in  Germany, 
Austria,  and  other  continental  countries,  and  is  perhaps 
most  potential  of  all  in  the  United  States.  The  census 
of  1891  showed  that  Liverpool  had  absolutely  declined 
by  6.3  per  cent,  in  ten  years.  But  the  Registrar-Gen- 
eral reported  that  this  decline  did  not  indicate  any 
falling  off  in  the  prosperity  and  development  of  Liver- 
pool, but  only  showed  how  restricted  were  the  boun- 
daries of  the  city,  inasmuch  as  the  contiguous  suburbs 
beyond  the  municipal  limits  had  in  ten  years  increased 
their  population  by  more  than  sixty  per  cent.  And  it 
was  further  explained  that  a  similar  process  was  af- 
fecting Manchester  and  other  large  English  centers. 

But  to  return  to  the  metropolis,  and  the  statistics 
of  its  shifting  population-density,  it  may  be  stated 
that  over  against  the  accelerating  decline  in  the  cen- 
tral districts  and  parishes  may  be  noted  in  the  last 
census  period  a  gain  of  from  45  to  65  per  cent,  in  such 
outlying  metropolitan  districts  as  Wandsworth,  Hamp- 
stead,  and  Fulham,  while  in  the  "outer  ring"  many 
districts  show  a  gain  of  more  than  100  per  cent.  Thus 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  London,  and  a  part  of  the 
Greater  London  of  the  metropolitan  police  district, 
are  big  communities  like  "West  Ham,  Leyton,  "Willes- 
den, and  Croydon.  Leyton  in  the  ten  years  of  the 
census  period  had  increased  by  133  per  cent.,  having 
grown  from  27,000  to  63,000  people.  WiUesden's  gain 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


297 


had  been  122  per  cent.,  from  27,600  to  61,300.  Tot- 
tenham, another  London  suburb,  had  grown  95  per 
cent.,  from  36,500  to  71,300.  West  Ham,  the  hugest 
of  the  suburban  towns  in  the  first  "  outer  ring,"  had 
gained  60  per  cent.,  having  grown  from  129,000  to 
205,000.  Croydon,  the  next  largest  of  the  municipali- 
ties lying  outside  the  county  council's  line  but  inside 
the  metropolitan  police  district,  had  nearly  103,000 
people  in  1891,  as  against  less  than  79,000  in  1881. 
These  instances  must  suffice  to  demonstrate  the 
tendency. 

The  growth  of  transit  facilities,  keeping  pace  with 
the  population  developments  of  the  past  generation, 
has  made  it  possible  for  London  to  retain  the  general 
characteristics  of  its  housing  system.  Thus  with  all 
the  overcrowding  that  doubtless  exists  in  the  central 
districts,  the  census  of  1891  found  nearly  800,000 
houses  inside  the  boundary  line  of  the  metropolitan 
police  district,  150,000  houses  having  been  added  in 
ten  years.  The  average  number  of  occupants  was 
seven  to  each  house.  In  the  more  central  portions 
there  were  eight  persons  to  a  house,  while  in  the 
outer  belt  the  average  was  six  persons.  The  average 
of  the  inner  districts  was  increased  by  the  model-tene- 
ment blocks  and  other  large  houses  sheltering  several 
families.  At  least  three  fourths  of  the  population  of 
London  would  now  appear  to  be  tolerably  well  shel- 
tered. It  is  estimated,  however,  that  there  are  ap- 
proximately a  million  people  whose  conditions  of 
shelter  are  positively  deleterious  to  health,  decency, 
and  civilization;  and  that  for  their  purposes  there 
ought  to  be  a  reconstruction  on  approved  plans  of 
about  400,000  rooms.  The  Bethnal  Green  project  is 
but  the  beginning  of  a  series  of  ambitious  housing 
schemes  that  will  do  much  to  reform  the  central  parts 
of  London  during  the  next  quarter-century. 


CHAP.  IX. 


Relation  of 
transit  to 
housing. 


A  million 
people  who 
need  to  l« 
rehoused. 


298 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Relative 
density. 


The  sphere 
of  London 
trams  and 
omnibuses. 


Proposed 
purchase  of 
street  rail- 
ways. 


Meanwhile,  the  improvement  of  transit  facilities 
will  afford  the  principal  relief.  Within  the  bounds 
of  the  metropolis  the  population-density  is  from  50 
to  60  per  acre;  although  we  have  seen  that  in  the 
Bethnal  Green  area  the  density  was  400  per  acre, 
while  it  exceeds  1000  per  acre  in  the  large  model-tene- 
ment blocks.  The  "  outer  ring,"  on  the  other  hand,  con- 
tains so  much  vacant  space  that  it  will  yet  be  many 
years  before  the  average  density  has  reached  10  per 
acre.  The  administrative  county,  or  metropolitan  area, 
while  of  irregular  shape,  may  be  said  to  lie  within  an 
average  distance  of  five  or  six  miles  from  Charing 
Cross,  except  for  a  long  extension  southeastward,  the 
bounds  of  which  are  ten  or  twelve  miles  from  Charing 
Cross.  The  area  comprised  within  the  five  or  six  miles' 
radius  may  be  called  the  territory  of  tramways,  omni- 
buses, and  underground  railways ;  and  this  composite 
system  of  transit  is  now  carrying  perhaps  600,000,000 
passengers  a  year,  or  an  average  of  2,000,000  a  day 
for  each  secular  working-day  in  the  year.  The  num- 
ber is  of  course  constantly  increasing.  An  area  of 
about  125  square  miles  is  thus  served  by  modes  of 
transit  which  are  fairly  efficient  but  susceptible  of  great 
improvement.  Every  reform  in  the  main  thoroughfare 
system  of  the  metropolis  assists  materially  in  the  daily 
ebb  and  flow  of  population.  This  fact  is  so  well  ap- 
preciated that  the  county  council  has  in  contemplation 
a  number  of  street-improvement  projects,  in  addition 
to  those  which  it  has  already  carried  out  as  successor 
to  the  policy  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  "Works. 
Street  improvements  will  facilitate  the  development 
of  the  tramway  system,  and  the  county  council  is  mov- 
ing definitely  in  the  direction  of  the  purchase  of  all 
the  lines  now  operated  by  private  street-railway  com- 
panies within  the  county  of  London. 

The  twenty-one-year  franchises  held  by  the  dozen 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS          299 

greater  and  smaller  companies  that  operate  street  rail-    CHAP.  ix. 
ways  in  London  began  to  expire  in  1891,  and  will  fall 
in  successively  during  a  period  of  ten  or  twelve  years.    Franchises 
The  county  council,  following  the  example  of  the  pro-     expiring* 
vincial  municipalities,  will  acquire  all  these  lines.    The 
process  of  purchase  has  been  retarded  by  tedious  ap- 
peals to  the  highest  tribunals,  growing  out  of  the 
refusal  of  the  companies  to  accept  the  awards  of  arbi- 
trators; but  such  delays  are  only  temporary.     By  a 
process  of  gradual  extension  and  consolidation,  the 
usefulness  of  the  system  to  the  people  of  the  metrop-   The  variouf 
olis  can  be  immensely  enhanced.   The  "  City  and  South      under- 
of  London"  underground  railway  —  which  has  tun-       ways. 
neled  beneath  the  Thames,  is  operated  by  electricity, 
and  is  provided  at  all  stations  with  passenger  lifts  or 
elevators  —  has  given  a  successful  demonstration  of 
the  possibilities  of  a  series  of  subterranean  lines  ex- 
tending in  different  directions  from  the  center  of 
London.    It  was  opened  at  the  end  of  1890,  and  is  a 
great  improvement  over  the  useful  but  uncomforta- 
ble underground  steam  service  of  the  "  Metropolitan  " 
and  "  Metropolitan  District "  companies.    The  newest 
electric  underground  project  is  the  Central  London 
Railway  which  is  now  building. 

It  is  the  newer  regions,  lying  for  the  most  part  at  a 
distance  of  more  than  five  miles  from  central  London, 

Suburban 

that  constitute  the  territory  dependent  upon  the  sub-  trains. 
urban  service  of  the  great  railways  and  the  finger-tips 
of  the  underground  lines.  The  ten  main  railway  com- 
panies whose  lines  center  in  London  operate  about 
2500  suburban  trains  each  day,  and  carry  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  people.  They  all  furnish  a  service  of 
working-men's  trains,  limited  to  certain  hours  in  the 
morning  and  evening.  The  county  council  is  endea- 

„     6,,  .  i  ,  „       Working- 

vormg  to  secure  tor  this  service  a  larger  number  ot  men's  trains. 
trains,  a  wider  limit  of  hours,  a  more  uniform  classifi- 


300 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GKEAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


An  improv- 
ing service. 


Sanitary 
work  in 
London 
districts. 


Hopeful 
progress 
visible. 


cation  of  rates,  and  the  introduction  of  something 
approximating  toward  a  zone  tariff  system.  There  is 
some  reason  to  believe  that  the  London  railways  may 
eventually  be  induced  to  make  radical  changes  in  the 
principles  upon  which  their  suburban  service  is  con- 
ducted, with  a  view  to  the  more  rapid  development  of 
the  suburbs  and  the  consequent  growth  of  their  pas- 
senger traffic.  The  county  council  has  shown  that 
suburban  railway  service  is  provided  for  working-men 
in  the  continental  cities  at  much  lower  prices  than  in 
London.  Its  persistent  agitation  of  this  subject  is 
meeting  with  favorable  responses,  and  most  of  the 
railways  centering  in  London  are  introducing  various 
improvements  in  their  special  suburban  transit  for 
working-men. 

As  I  have  already  explained,  the  public  health  and 
housing  committee  of  the  county  council  is  charged 
with  jurisdiction  over  certain  portions  of  the  metro- 
politan health  administration.  The  ordinary  duties 
that  belong  to  the  enforcement  of  the  health  acts  are, 
however,  assigned  to  the  parish  and  district  boards. 
Under  the  new  Local  Government  Act  of  1894,  the  po- 
sition of  these  local  authorities  is  strengthened  so  far 
as  their  sanitary  work  is  concerned.  Each  of  them 
maintains  a  medical  officer  of  health  and  a  corps  of 
sanitary  inspectors.  Until  very  recently  their  work  of 
inspection  was  incompletely  performed.  Some  great 
parishes,  having  from  a  hundred  thousand  to  a  quarter 
of  a  million  people,  employed  only  one  or  two  inspec- 
tors. But  a  change  for  the  better  has  taken  place,  and 
under  the  moral  influence  and  official  oversight  of  the 
county  council,  the  parish  and  district  boards  have 
vastly  improved  and  developed  their  sanitary  organ- 
ization. They  are  responsible  for  the  cleansing  of 
streets,  for  the  removal  and  disposition  of  garbage, 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


301 


and  for  all  minor  tasks  and  processes  that  belong  to 
good  municipal  housekeeping.  These  tasks  are  as  yet 
most  unevenly  performed  in  the  different  districts,  but 
there  is  striking  progress  visible  almost  everywhere. 

That  part  of  health  administration  which  is  con- 
cerned with  infectious  diseases  belongs  to  a  Metropoli- 
tan Asylums  Board,  which  reports  directly  to  the  central 
British  government, —  i.  e.,  to  the  Local  Government 
Board, —  and  which  is  composed  of  seventy-two  man- 
agers of  whom  eighteen  are  nominated  by  the  Local 
Government  Board,  and  fifty-four  are  appointed  by 
the  various  boards  of  guardians  in  the  thirty  London 
poor-law  districts.  This  asylums  board  was  formed 
in  1867,  at  a  time  when  it  was  urgently  necessary  to 
provide  smallpox  and  fever  hospitals  and  to  bring  all 
the  arrangements  for  the  control  of  epidemics  under 
some  central  authority.  There  were  other  obvious 
reasons  why  there  should  be  some  federation  of  the 
local  poor-law  boards,  particularly  the  demand  for  a 
general  administration  of  asylums  and  institutions  for 
certain  classes  of  unfortunates.  The  responsibilities 
devolving  upon  this  board  are  too  serious  to  admit  of 
any  neglect ;  and  although  the  metropolis  ought  not  to 
maintain  a  separate  authority  for  such  tasks,  one  may, 
nevertheless,  commend  the  vigor  and  efficiency  which 
has  recently  characterized  the  work  of  this  organiza- 
tion for  the  control  of  infectious  maladies. 

The  hospitals  of  the  board  have  since  1891  been 
more  than  doubled  in  capacity,  and  every  feature  of 
the  work  of  isolating  infectious  diseases  begins  to 
show  some  of  that  progress  that  has  so  strikingly 
marked  the  municipal  sanitary  administration  of  Glas- 
gow, Birmingham,  and  other  provincial  towns.  In 
1892  there  were  27,000  scarlet-fever  cases  in  London, 
of  which  14,000  cases  were  treated  at  home,  while 
13,000  were  removed  to  the  hospitals  of  the  asylums 


CHAP.  IX. 


Metropoli- 
tan Asylums 
Board. 


The  central 
poor-law 
authority. 


Infectious 

diseases  in 

London. 


302  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ix.  board.  There  were  nearly  7800  cases  of  diphtheria, 
of  which  it  appears  that  about  5100  were  removed  to 
the  board's  hospitals.  As  for  smallpox,  the  asylums 
board  isolates  sporadic  outbreaks  §o  effectively  that 
the  disease  no  longer  assumes  epidemic  form  in  any  of 
the  London  districts.  Typhus  has  been  almost  totally 
stamped  out.  The  asylums  board  maintains  a  well- 
organized  ambulance  service  j  has  asylums  for  imbe- 
ciles; manages  a  training-ship  for  boys  turned  over 
to  its  care  by  the  poor-law  authorities  of  the  various 
districts ;  and  performs  certain  other  services. 

As  a  result  of  public  improvements  and  reforms  in 

the  sanitary  administration,  imperfect  though  these 

,  reforms  have  been,  the  death-rate  of  London  has  been 

Reduction  of 

death-rate,  reduced  from  more  than  thirty  as  the  average  annual 
rate  per  thousand  during  the  half-century  from  1800 
to  1850,  down  to  the  present  average  rate  of  about 
twenty.  This  means,  in  a  population  of  5,000,000,  the 
saving  of  50,000  lives  a  year.  It  means,  of  course, 
the  prevention  of  a  vastly  greater  number  of  cases  of 
sickness,  a  marked  increase  in  the  average  duration 
of  life,  and  an  important  conservation  of  the  physical 
strength  and  wealth-producing  energy  of  the  people. 

A  triumph    The  saving  of  500,000  lives  in  every  decade  in  the  one 

of  sanitary  » 

science.  city  of  London  as  a  result  of  improved  public  ar- 
rangements, is  a  triumph  for  sanitary  science  that 
may  well  encourage  further  efforts. 

The  maintenance  of  lunatic  asylums  for  the  me- 
tropolis is  one  of  the  duties  that  was  laid  upon  the 
county  council  by  the  act  of  1888,  and  its  hospitals  for 
this  purpose  have  been  enormously  extended  during  the 

asylums,  brief  period  of  its  existence.  The  care  of  the  insane 
for  a  great  community  of  five  or  six  million  people  is  no 
trivial  undertaking;  and  until  the  advent  of  the  county 
council  the  task  was  not  altogether  well  performed. 
There  has  been  a  remarkable  change  for  the  better. 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS  303 

Public  baths  and  wash-houses  and  free  libraries,    CHAP.  ix. 
which  have  become  so  popular  as  departments  of  mu- 

..,,..    ..      ,.         -fi.  •       •    T   .  T_   ,  Public  baths 

nicipal  administration  in  the  provincial  towns,  belong 


to  the  domain  of  the  London  vestries  and  district 

boards.    Until  a  recent  date  these  bodies  had  shown 

little  concern  for  the  social  welfare  of  their  neighbor- 

hoods, and  only  a  few  scattered  districts  had  adopted 

the  Free  Libraries  Act,  while  baths  and  wash-houses 

were  scarcely  known  within  the  metropolitan  area. 

But  more  than  half  of  the  London  districts  have  now 

established  free  public  libraries.     Many  of  these  dis- 

tricts have  built,  or  have  begun  to  build,  commodious 

town-halls,  in  which  the  vestries  or  district  boards 

have  their  offices,  connected  with  which  are  assembly- 

rooms  and   central   district   libraries  and  reading- 

rooms,  besides  which,  in  some  cases,  there  are  contig- 

uous public  baths.    In  several  of  the  districts  there 

are  systems  of  branch  libraries  and  reading-rooms  in    Progress  of 

addition  to  the  central  establishment.     A  movement    movem™t. 

of  this  kind  once  fairly  begun  is  seldom  arrested  in 

its  progress.     The   standard  has  been  established; 

those  London  districts  not  provided  with  libraries 

will  begin  to  demand  them.     The  same  remark  may 

be  applied  to  the  public  baths  and  wash-houses.  Their  wash-houses. 

erection  in  a  few  districts  has  given  the  metropolitan 

masses  a  new  idea,  and  the  multiplication  of  these 

beneficent  institutions  throughout  the  metropolis  has 

already  begun.     The  provision  of  common  lodging- 

houses  is  a  matter  that  comes  under  the  jurisdiction 

of  the  county  council.     It  has  ventured  to  establish    ing-houses. 

one  or  two  institutions  on  the  Glasgow  model,  with 

results  that  are  admittedly  important  enough  to  jus- 

tify a  gradual  extension  of  the  policy. 

The  Progressives  of  the  county  council  are  aware 
that  their  whole  program  cannot  be  carried  out  at 
once,  but  their  future  policy  includes  among  other 


304 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


The  London 
gas-com- 
panies. 


Financial 
argument 
for  munici- 
palization. 


Public  elec- 
trical works. 


Objections 

to  use  of 

streets  by 

companies. 


things  the  municipalization  of  public  lighting.  At 
present  London  is  supplied  with  gas  by  three  com- 
panies, one  of  which,  the  London  Gaslight  and  Coke 
Company,  is  a  mammoth  concern,  monopolizing  the 
entire  metropolis  north  of  the  Thames,  while  the  Com- 
mercial Gas  Company  and  the  South  Metropolitan 
Company  divide  between  them  the  district  south  of 
the  river.  The  prices  charged  to  London  consumers 
have  been  at  times  regulated  by  acts  of  Parliament. 
They  are  considerably  higher,  however,  than  prices  that 
would  be  charged  under  municipal  operation.  It  has 
been  very  conservatively  estimated  that  if  the  county 
council  should .  buy  up  the  London  gas-companies, 
even  at  the  highest  price  that  could  be  demanded,  the 
immediate  result  would  be  a  saving  to  the  people 
of  London  of  more  than  $5,000,000  a  year,  a  sum  that 
now  goes  as  dividends  to  private  shareholders.  This 
sum  could  either  be  returned  to  the  public  in  the  form 
of  a  reduced  charge  for  gas,  or  it  could  be  covered 
into  the  municipal  treasury  and  expended  upon  desir- 
able works  of  public  utility.  Meanwhile,  a  number  of 
the  vestries  and  district  boards  have  acquired  powers 
under  the  electric  lighting  acts,  and  have  established 
plants  for  lighting  their  own  streets  and  for  furnish- 
ing electric  illumination  to  such  private  consumers  as 
may  desire  it.  The  tendency  toward  a  municipal  as- 
sumption of  the  gas  and  electric  lighting  supply  of 
the  metropolis  is  a  very  strong  one.  The  presence  in 
the  London  streets  of  gas-companies,  water-companies, 
and  various  other  private  interests  has  proved  a  serious 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  maintaining  satisfactory  pave- 
ments. The  provision  of  subways  for  pipes  and  wires 
of  various  sorts  has  made  considerable  progress,  but 
there  are  cases  on  record  where  the  gas  and  water 
companies  have  refused  to  avail  themselves  of  sub- 
ways that  were  placed  at  their  disposal,  and  have  torn 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS  305 

up  newly  paved  streets  in  order  to  lay  their  pipes  in  CHAP.  ix. 
the  ground  in  accordance  with  their  antiquated  meth- 
ods. Incidents  of  this  kind  are  helping  to  accelerate 
the  growth  of  a  London  sentiment  against  the  use 
of  public  streets  for  any  purpose  by  private  water- 
companies,  gas-companies,  tramway  companies,  elec- 
tric light  and  power  companies,  telephone  companies, 
or  any  other  private  interests  whatsoever. 

Great  attention  has  been  given  in  recent  years  to 
the  acquisition  of  ground  for  parks.  Formerly  the 
principal  public  gardens  and  open  spaces  of  London 
were  appurtenances  of  the  Crown,  and  were  under 
control  of  the  commissioners  of  her  Majesty's  works 
and  public  buildings.  This  remains  true  of  Hyde 
Park,  with  St.  James's  and  Green,  of  Richmond, 
Hampton  Court,  and  the  Kew  Gardens,  of  Regent's 
Park  and  of  Greenwich — all  noble  pleasure-grounds 
that  are  freely  at  the  service  of  the  London  masses. 
But  the  county  council  has  fallen  heir  to  a  number  of 
parks  that  had  been  either  created  by  the  metropoli- 
tan  board  or  transferred  to  it.  Thus  in  1887  the  Vic- 
toria,  Battersea,  and  Kennington  parks  had  been 
transferred  from  the  control  of  her  Majesty's  com- 
missioners to  the  metropolitan  board ;  and  among  the 
other  well-known  parks,  commons,  and  open  spaces 
that  came  under  the  council's  charge  are  Southwark, 
Finsbury,  Blackheath,  Hackney,  Clapham,  Hamp- 
stead  Heath,  Stoke  Newington,  Shepherd's  Bush, 
Tooting  Beck,  Plumstead,  Streatham,  Wormwood 
Scrubs,  Wandsworth,  Vauxhall,  and  Brixton.  A  large 
amount  of  legislation  enacted  within  the  past  quarter-  preservation 
century  has  had  for  its  object  the  creation  and  preser-  spaces! 
vation  of  open  spaces,  the  transformation  of  disused 
cemeteries  into  park  spaces,  and  the  encouragement 
in  all  possible  ways  of  park-making  in  and  about  the 

I.- 20 


306  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ix.  metropolis.  The  result  has  been  surprising  in  the 
aggregate.  The  City  corporation  has  lately  made 

Aid  of  the  good  use  of  some  of  its  wealth  in  the  purchase  for 
guilds.  public  parks  of  several  extensive  tracts  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  metropolis.  The  guilds  and  certain 
private  associations  are  also  zealously  helping  to 
atone  for  past  neglect,  and  to  provide  the  present  and 
future  metropolis  with  recreation-grounds  and  breath- 
ing-spaces. But  there  is  daily  reason  for  regret  that 
the  need  of  parks  was  not  sooner  foreseen,  and  that 
so  many  ancient  tracts  of  common  land  have  been 
swallowed  up  beyond  recovery  in  the  expanding  wil- 
derness of  brick  and  mortar  and  narrow  streets.  Much 
remains  to  be  done  in  the  opening  of  park  spaces  in 
metropolitan  London. 

When  the  county  council  was  organized  in  1889,  the 
parks  and  open  spaces  committee  proved  to  be  only  less 

Zeal  of  the  r,  .  ,    \         .  ,       J      . 

new  council,  popular  than  the  committee  on  the  housin  g  of  the  work- 
ing-classes. A  remarkably  large  number  of  the  county 
councilors  asked  to  be  placed  upon  the  parks  commit- 
tee. As  constituted,  it  speedily  proved  its  efficiency ; 
so  that  its  work  obtained  praise  in  many  quarters 
where  the  county  council  and  its  programs  were  gen- 
erally criticized  and  opposed.  Within  three  years 
Doubling  it  had  succeeded  in  expanding  the  park  area  controlled 

threfyeans!  by  the  council  from  fifteen  hundred  acres  to  three 
thousand  acres,  and  this  development  was  due  to  the 
acquisition  of  a  great  number  of  additional  spaces  well 
distributed  throughout  the  various  portions  of  the 
metropolis. 

Even  more  remarkable  than  the  increase  of  park  area 
was  the  transformation  which  this  committee  wrought 
in  the  care  and  condition  of  the  parks.  Spaces  which 

in  the  parks,  had  been  anything  but  attractive  have  come  under 
the  magic  touch  of  the  landscape  gardener.  The 
council's  policy  of  making  the  parks  minister  in  the 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS  307 

highest  possible  degree  to  the  pleasure  and  recreation  CHAP.  ix. 
of  the  people  has  found  expression  in  a  hundred  in- 
genious ways.  But  most  remarkable  of  all  has  been 
the  manner  in  which  the  committee  on  parks  has  made 
provision  for  the  athletic  culture  of  young  Londoners 
of  both  sexes,  and  for  their  natural  and  healthful  de-  Provision  of 

play- 

votiou  to  outdoor  sports.     Cricket-grounds  and  foot-     grounds, 
ball  grounds,  literally  by  the  thousand,  have  been  laid 
out,  besides  many  hundreds  of  tennis-courts,  and  vari- 
ous golf  and  hockey  grounds.    The  council  committee 
has  not  merely  provided  these  opportunities  for  rec- 
reation, but  it  has  gone  so  far  as  sedulously  to  super- 
vise the  use  of  the  cricket-grounds  and  other  play-   gu 
grounds,  to  the  end  that  the  largest  possible  number  the  sports  of 
of  young  people  may  get  the  best  attainable  results       don. 
of  pleasure  and  physical  development  from  their  use. 
The  council  has  imitated  the  continental  cities  in  mak- 
ing provision  of  music  in  the  parks,  and  its  numerous 

Music  in  the 

subsidized  bands  are  giving  more  than  a  thousand  parks. 
open-air  concerts  each  season.  I  have  only  indicated 
in  a  very  summary  fashion  a  part  of  the  work  of  this 
zealous  committee  which  administers  the  parks  and 
open  spaces.  It  has  succeeded  in  making  the  parks 
so  attractive  that  several  million  persons  each  year 
are  now  deriving  pleasure  either  from  participation 
in  the  games,  attendance  at  the  concerts,  or  in  other 
similar  ways.  The  preservation  of  several  very  large 
outlving  tracts  of  wooded  parkland,  together  with  the  Future  gene- 

a  „  ,  ,  ,,  ,  ,.        rations  pro- 

Opening  up  of  numerous  larger  and  smaller  public      teeted. 

pleasure-grounds  in  every  district  of  the  huge  metrop- 
olis, has  now  made  it  certain  that  the  growth  of  London 
can  never  shut  off  the  children  of  future  generations 
from  access  to  grass  and  trees  and  open-air  sports. 

On  the  creation  of  a  popularly  elected  school-board 
for  the  metropolis  in  1870,  and  its  great  work  of 


308 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 

The  London 
School 
Board. 


School  at- 
tendance. 


Mode  of 
election. 


Cumulative 
system  for 
benefit  of 
minorities. 


education,  it  may  be  said  in  a  word  that  the  board  has 
more  than  400  schools,  with  nearly  500,000  children 
enrolled  as  pupils.  Prior  to  1871  all  the  elementary 
schools  of  London  were  denominational  and  private, 
being  partly  supported  by  grants  from  the  govern- 
ment. There  were  then  about  300,000  pupils  enrolled 
in  all  London ;  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  schools 
were  utterly  inefficient,  and  attendance  was  irregular. 
Probably  not  200,000  children  were  receiving  efficient 
and  regular  instruction.  There  are  now  at  least  750,- 
000  enrolled  in  schools  of  good  character  and  stand- 
ing, approved  by  the  government  inspectors.  Thus 
the  general  educational  condition  of  London  has  been 
revolutionized  within  twenty-five  years.  Compulsory 
education  is  not  a  merely  nominal  provision  in  Lon- 
don, for  school  attendance  is  enforced  by  an  army  of 
272  "  visitors." 

The  school-board  was  the  first  public  body  that  the 
metropolitan  population  was  permitted  to  elect  by  di- 
rect vote.  It  has  fifty-five  members,  elected  in  eleven 
large  districts.  The  entire  board  is  renewed  every 
three  years,  and  the  principle  of  minority  representa- 
tion prevails.  Thus,  in  the  Tower  Hamlets  district, 
which  elects  five  members,  the  voter  might  "  plump  " 
his  five  votes  for  a  single  candidate,  or  might  distrib- 
ute them  to  two,  three,  four,  or  five  candidates.  To 
illustrate  the  working  of  the  system  in  that  district, 
a  few  years  ago  Sir  Edmund  Hay  Currie  and  Mrs. 
Annie  Besant  were  candidates  favoring  the  "  progres- 
sive "  as  opposed  to  the  "  reactionary  "  policy.  The 
radicals  and  anti-denominationalists  concentrated 
their  votes  upon  these  two  candidates  and  elected 
them,  whereas  if  they  had  pushed  a  full  ticket  of  five 
names  they  would  have  been  defeated.  The  plan 
gives  every  considerable  element  an  opportunity  to 
secure  representation. 


METEOPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


309 


The  ultimate  policy  of  the  London  School  Board  has 
not  yet  been  determined.  The  progressive  element  is 
holding  up  before  the  people  of  London  a  school  pol- 
icy that  corresponds  with  the  municipal  reform  pro- 
gram of  the  progressive  majority  in  the  county  coun- 
cil. Thus  it  is  proposed  to  heighten  the  efficiency  of 
the  board-schools  in  every  possible  way ;  to  increase 
the  compensation  of  teachers;  to  annex  a  gymna- 
sium and  a  swimming-bath  to  every  public  school;  to 
put  pianos  and  other  means  of  pleasure  and  culture 
in  the  school-rooms ;  and  even,  as  regards  the  schools 
in  the  poorest  neighborhoods,  to  provide  free  meals 
for  the  scholars,  thousands  of  whom  come  to  school 
without  having  partaken  of  a  breakfast.  The  conser- 
vative policy,  on  the  other  hand,  which  has  carried 
the  day  at  the  triennial  elections  more  frequently 
than  that  of  the  progressives,  would  seem  to  regard 
the  parochial  and  private  schools  as  the  normal  edu- 
cational system,  while  the  public  board-schools  are 
but  a  supplementary  arrangement  which  exists  in  or- 
der to  furnish  the  necessary  modicum  of  elementary 
education  to  such  children  as  would  otherwise  receive 
no  instruction  whatever.  Economy  is  the  key-note  of 
this  party  when  in  control  of  school  administration. 
The  great  electoral  contest  of  November,  1894,  was 
embittered  by  the  prominent  introduction  of  the  ques- 
tion of  religious  instruction  in  the  schools. 

Speaking  broadly,  it  may  be  said  that  all  elements 
concerned  with  school  administration  in  London  are 
making  progress  in  their  views,  and  that  the  so-called 
reactionists  of  to-day  are  merely  occupying  the  ground 
upon  which  the  progressives  stood  ten  years  ago.  The 
outlook  for  a  constant  development  in  the  extent  and 
character  of  the  instruction  afforded  by  the  London 
School  Board,  and  in  the  socialistic  range  of  its  activ- 
ities on  behalf  of  the  poorer  children  of  the  metropo- 

I.-20* 


CHAP.  IX. 


The  pro- 
gressive 
school  pol- 
icy. 


The  reac- 
tionist pol- 
icy. 


Growth  of 
new  ideas. 


310  MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

CHAP.  ix.  lis,  is  as  bright  as  the  school  reformers  could  well 
desire.  The  board  has  begun  to  arouse  itself  to  the 
need  of  great  improvements  in  its  system  of  evening 

classes  for  the  benefit  of  boys  and  girls  whose  day- 
Evening  *  ° 
schools.      school  work  has  ended  with  their  twelfth  or  thirteenth 

year.  These  continuation  classes  deal  with  practical 
subjects,  and  give  promise  of  a  great  widening  of 
their  usefulness  in  the  early  future. 

Several  acts  of  Parliament  for  the  promotion  of 
technical  education  throughout  Great  Britain  have 
placed  the  London  county  council  in  a  position  "to  or- 
cirs  work  of  ganize  and  to  develop  a  vast  educational  work  under 
education,    its  own  direct  control.    From  the  royal  exchequer  the 
London  county  council,  in  common  with  the  councils 
of  the  other  chief  towns  of  Great  Britain,  receives  a 
certain  proportion  of  excise  receipts  and  other  dues 
as  a  "  Technical  Education  Exchequer  Fund."    "With 
these  contributions  from  the  general  government,  and 
with  appropriations  out  of  its  own  revenues,  the  county 
council  is  in  position  to  expend  about  half  a  million 
naif  a  mil-    dollars  a  year  in  promoting  the  technical  education  of 
spend.      the  young  people  of  London.  It  has  entered  upon  this 
great  work  with  commendable  prudence  and  wisdom. 
Under  the  chairmanship  of  one  of  its  most  brilliant 
and  indefatigable  members,  Mr.  Sidney  Webb,  the 
council  has  formed  a  grand  committee  as  a  "  Technical 
The  Tecimi-   Education  Board,"  having  added  to  the  twenty  coun- 
tion  Board,    cilors  of  the  committee  some  fifteen  leading  representa- 
tives of  existing  educational  institutions  and  agencies 
for  the  promotion  of  technical  instruction  in  London. 
It  is  the  policy  of  this  technical  education  board  to 
knit  together  into  one  harmonious  system  all  worthy 
institutions  and  classes  already  existing  in  London, 
and  to  found  new  institutions  only  as  their  need 
should  become  apparent  for  the  rounding  out  of  the 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


311 


system.  The  board's  first  task  was  one  of  careful  in- 
quiry and  tabulation.  Its  secretary,  Mr.  Llewellyn 
Smith,  drew  up  an  exhaustive  analytical  report  upon 
the  whole  status  of  practical  and  technical  instruction 
in  the  metropolis.  The  report  was  accompanied  by 
diagrams  showing  the  distribution  throughout  the 
London  districts  of  the  chief  industries.  Mr.  Charles 
Booth's  inquiries  promoted  this  interesting  analysis. 
As  a  result  of  investigation,  the  technical  education 
board  decided  upon  the  plan  of  (1)  granting  funds 
upon  certain  conditions  to  existing  institutions;  (2) 
establishing  a  system  of  scholarships;  and  (3)  provid- 
ing instruction  for  certain  groups  and  classes  of  peo- 
ple not  already  reached  by  existing  agencies. 

The  origin  and  history  of  the  guilds  or  livery  com- 
panies of  London  would  seem  to  make  it  obviously 
appropriate  that  they  should  use  a  portion  of  their 
large  revenues  in  establishing  technical  schools  to  ad- 
vance the  interests  of  those  trades  and  crafts  whose 
names  the  guilds  have  borne  through  so  many  genera- 
tions. This  idea  has  in  fact  commended  itself  strongly 
to  the  members  of  the  City  companies.  Some  years 
ago  a  number  of  them,  in  conjunction  with  the  City 
corporation,  founded  the  City  and  Guilds  of  London 
Institute,  agreeing  to  support  it  by  large  yearly  con- 
tributions. This  institute  has  already  accomplished 
a  great  work  for  technical  instruction  throughout  the 
United  Kingdom.  It  maintains  (1)  a  great  central 
school  of  technology  in  South  Kensington,  London ; 
(2)  a  practical  technical  college  in  another  part  of  the 
city ;  and  (3)  a  school  of  applied  art  in  South  London. 
Besides  these  central  institutions,  it  subsidizes  classes 
in  various  technical  subjects  in  all  parts  of  the  coun- 
try, under  the  principle  of  grants  of  money  based  upon 
the  result  of  examinations.  Side  by  side  with  the 
work  of  the  City  and  Guilds  of  London  Institute,  has 


CHAP.  IX. 


Federation 

of  existing 

institutions. 


Scheme  of 
promotion. 


London 
guilds  and 

practical 
education . 


City  and 
Guilds  of 

London 
Institute. 


312 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  ix. 


been  that  of  the  so-called  Science  and  Art  Depart- 
men^  °^  *ne  general  government.  This  department 
ment.  maintains  great  central  schools  of  science  and  art  in 
connection  with  the  vast  museums  of  South  Kensing- 
ton, and  also  subsidizes  classes  —  most  of  them  in  the 
industrial  applications  of  the  principles  of  science  and 
art  —  throughout  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  A  third 

POI  techni     important  agency  in  the  work  of  technical  instruc- 

institutes.    tion  is  the  series  of  polytechnic  institutes  and  people's 

palaces  that  has  sprung  into  being  in  different  parts 

of  London.     Two  or  three  of  these  great  institutions 

are  now  supported  wholly  by  contributions  from  the 

wealthier  London  guilds.     Others  have  derived  their 

support  in  part  from  private  benefactions,  and  in 

part  from  charity  funds  which  are  at  the  disposal  of 

certain  public  commissioners.     These  commissioners 

Aided  by     administer  the  revenues  of  a  great  number  of  old 

'missioned  parochial  endowments  which  have  been  revised,  con- 
solidated, and  reduced  to  modern  uses,  under  the  terms 
of  an  act  of  Parliament  which  Mr.  James  Bryce  some 
years  ago  introduced  and  carried  to  a  successful  con- 
clusion. The  polytechnic  institutes,  besides  affording 
recreation  in  a  vast  number  of  ways  to  their  thou- 
sands of  members,  provide  also  a  very  wide  range  of 
evening  educational  work,  chiefly  in  technical  subjects 

other  agen-  and  practical  trades.  Besides  these  conspicuous  agen- 
struction.  cies,  there  might  be  mentioned  a  long  list  of  institu- 
tions which  in  their  own  manner  and  measure  have 
for  some  time  been  engaged  in  practical  instruction  of 
a  kind  which  falls  under  the  cognizance  of  the  new 
technical  education  board. 

The  connection  of  the  board  with  all  these  London 
institutions  is  twofold.  First,  it  has  secured  a  county 
council  representation  upon  their  various  governing 
bodies,  and  second,  it  has  brought  into  the  member- 
ship of  the  board  itself  a  number  of  men  most  promi- 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


313 


Statesman- 

Me  methods 

of  technical 

board. 


Question  of 
police  con- 
trol. 


nently  identified  with    the   control    of  the   several    CHAP.  ix. 
institutions.    There  has  thus  been  effected  a  states- 

1-1        n  •  a  • 

manlike  federation  of  all  the  interests  and  agencies 

...  ,.  -i   ii        •    •    x       -i  m 

which  are  working  toward  the  joint  advancement  of 
London's  industries  and  London's  workers,  under  the 
new  method  of  furnishing  education  in  technical  pro- 
cesses and  principles.  Of  all  departments  of  adminis- 
tration which  are  now  engaged  in  the  task  of  making 
London  better,  happier,  and  more  prosperous,  I  am 
inclined  to  the  opinion  that  the  technical  education 
board,  with  the  institutions  which  it  fosters,  is  the 
department  that  bids  fair  to  accomplish  the  largest 
share  in  the  aggregate  result. 


One  of  the  London  topics  always  under  controversy 
is  the  control  of  the  police.  The  metropolitan  police 
organization  falls  under  the  direct  control  of  the  home 
department  of  the  general  government.  The  old  City 
has  a  police  force  of  its  own.  The  metropolitan  organi- 
zation includes  some  fifteen  thousand  men,  while  the 
City's  force  numbers  perhaps  fifteen  hundred.  The 
royal  commission  on  the  unification  of  London  pro- 
poses that  the  City  police  shall  be  amalgamated  with 
the  metropolitan  force,  but  does  not  propose  to  trans- 
fer the  police  control  from  the  general  government  to 
the  county  council.  The  London  reformers  in  general 
have  strenuously  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  the 
direct  municipal  control  of  the  police,  as  in  Birming- 
ham, Manchester,  and  all  the  provincial  towns.  It 
might  be  argued,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  position 
of  the  metropolis  is  different  from  that  of  the  provin- 
cial towns,  inasmuch  as  Manchester  and  Birmingham 
have  no  interests  to  protect  except  those  that  are 
strictly  local ;  while  the  metropolis  includes,  besides 
the  local  interests  of  its  inhabitants,  an  aggregation 
of  interests  pertaining  to  the  whole  British  empire. 


London  re- 
formers de- 
mand muni- 
cipal police 
system. 


London's 

position  as 

imperial 

capital. 


314 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


Views  in 
Paris,  Ber- 
lin, and 

Vienna. 


The  London 
markets. 


The  dock 
system. 


An  objec- 
tionable pri- 
vate monop- 
oly. 


The  question  of  London  police  control  is  not  in  fact 
a  very  important  one.  The  shrewdest  municipal  pro- 
gressists in  Paris,  Berlin,  and  Vienna  have  no  desire 
to  burden  the  municipality  with  police  control.  They 
willingly  accept  the  argument  that,  since  the  policing 
function  is  in  theory  and  origin  a  general  rather  than 
a  local  one,  the  general  government  of  a  nation  or  an 
empire  may  well  retain  the  direct  control  of  the  police 
of  the  capital  town,  even  though  it  may  find  it  alto- 
gether expedient  to  delegate  to  provincial  towns  the 
ordinary  administration  of  their  local  police  depart- 
ments. As  for  London,  a  number  of  considerations 
of  practical  convenience  help  to  sustain  the  argument 
for  municipal  control,  and  the  ultimate  solution  may 
be  found  to  lie  in  a  twofold  system,  the  great  bulk  of 
the  police  force  passing  over  to  the  control  of  the  mu- 
nicipal council. 

It  is  one  of  the  demands  of  the  London  reformers 
that  permission  should  be  given  by  Parliament  to 
the  county  council  to  establish  a  modern  system  of 
metropolitan  markets.  The  old  corporation  has  re- 
mained in  possession  as  the  market  authority  for  Lon- 
don, and  its  establishments,  while  in  many  respects 
highly  interesting  and  in  some  regards  modern  and 
efficient,  fall  very  far  short  of  the  reasonable  re- 
quirements of  the  vast  community,  and  can  scarcely 
be  regarded  as  highly  popular  in  their  administration. 

The  London  docks  are  altogether  in  the  hands  of 
private  companies.  They  constitute  an  extensive  sys- 
tem upon  which  more  than  a  hundred  million  dollars 
of  capital  has  been  expended ;  but  the  competition  of 
rival  companies  has  led  to  much  expenditure  that  a 
unified  public  system  of  docks  could  have  avoided. 
Private  enterprise  in  London  dock  management  com- 
pares very  unfavorably  with  public  enterprise  as  ex- 
hibited in  the  management  of  the  Liverpool  docks, 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS 


315 


and  in  the  harbor  and  dock  management  of  various 
other  English  ports.  The  London  dock  companies 
some  years  ago  passed  from  the  stage  of  competition 
to  that  of  combination;  and  practically  the  entire 
dock  interest  is  now  managed  by  a  joint  committee 
of  the  boards  of  the  leading  companies  as  a  huge  mo- 
nopoly or  trust.  The  methods  employed  by  the  com- 
panies are  not  conducive  in  the  highest  sense  to  the 
commercial  interests  of  London ;  while  their  effect 
upon  the  condition  of  labor  in  East  London  was  pain- 
fully exemplified  several  years  ago  in  the  now  historic 
dock  strikes.  The  municipal  acquisition  of  the  docks 
is  therefore  a  reasonable  clause  in  the  program  of  the 
London  reformers. 

The  London  county  council  has  lately  been  conspi- 
cuous for  certain  economic  heresies.  No  policy  had 
been  more  offensive  to  the  orthodox  economists  and 
administrators  of  England  than  that  of  the  direct  em- 
ployment of  labor  in  any  kind  of  public  work,  when 
the  circumstances  admitted  of  the  use  of  the  contract 
system.  The  county  council  has  not  wholly  abandoned 
the  contract  system,  but  its  sphere  of  direct  employ- 
ment grows  wider  from  year  to  year.  By  repeated 
experiments  it  has  demonstrated  its  ability  to  under- 
bid the  lowest  bidder.  That  is  to  say,  it  has  in  a  large 
number  of  instances  rejected  all  bids  for  such  tasks  as 
sewer  construction,  the  erection  of  a  building,  or  the 
re-turfing  of  a  park,  and  has  proceeded  to  employ  its 
own  workmen  and  to  carry  out  the  task  under  the 
eye  of  its  own  architects  or  surveyors  or  engineers. 
In  every  instance  it  has  completed  the  work  for  a 
much  smaller  sum  than  the  lowest  of  the  rejected 
bids ;  and  it  has  declared  the  finished  work  to  be  more 
satisfactory  in  character  than  any  which  could  be  ex- 
pected from  a  contractor. 

Furthermore,  the  council  has  endeavored  to  set  a 


CHAP.  IX. 


Municipal 
acquisition 
demanded. 


Contract 
system 
opposed. 


Success  of 
direct  em- 
ployment 


316 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 

Council  as 
model  em- 
ployer. 


Attendant 
economies. 


Retiring 
pensions  to 
employees. 


good  example  to  all  the  world  as  a  model  employer. 
Its  labor  policy  has  been  largely  due  to  the  zeal  of  a 
labor  leader  in  its  own  body,  namely,  Mr.  John  Burns. 
Throughout  all  its  varied  undertakings  the  council 
has  endeavored  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor,  and  has 
found  it  possible  to  secure  for  every  worker  one  day 
of  rest  in  seven.  Its  solicitude  extends  from  the 
flushers  of  sewers  to  hospital  nurses  and  to  keepers 
and  attendants  in  the  insane  asylums.  Its  policy  of 
better  wages  and  shorter  hours  has  unquestionably 
increased  the  pay-roll  by  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars 
a  year ;  but  this  sum  has  been  offset,  in  the  estimation 
of  the  council,  by  the  greatly  enhanced  efficiency  of  its 
army  of  employees,  who  are  now  serving  it  with  an 
unprecedented  zeal  and  intelligence.  Again,  the  coun- 
cil's liberality  in  the  matter  of  wages  paid  to  the  rank 
and  file  of  its  workmen  has  been  accompanied  by  a 
weeding  out  of  high-salaried  supernumeraries.  Still 
further,  the  council  has  effected  great  economies  in  its 
purchase  of  departmental  supplies,  and  has  saved  large 
sums  by  abolishing  the  favoritism  and  the  wastefulness 
in  the  letting  of  contracts  which  had  grown  to  scan- 
dalous proportions  in  the  hands  of  its  predecessors. 
Another  of  the  council's  innovations  is  the  strict  en- 
forcement of  a  clause  in  all  its  contracts  which  com- 
pels the  contractor  to  pay  standard  wages,  and  a 
second  clause  which  absolutely  forbids  the  sub-letting 
of  contracts,  and  which  therefore  exterminates  the 
sweating  system  so  far  as  the  municipal  business  is 
concerned.  Finally,  the  council  has  introduced  a  sys- 
tem of  small  retiring  pensions  for  all  faithful  muni- 
cipal employees,  including  those  employed  in  ordinary 
labor,  as  well  as  its  most  highly  esteemed  functionaries 
such  as  the  members  of  the  Metropolitan  Fire  Brigade. 
It  is  unanimously  agreed  that  the  members  of  the 
Fire  Department  should  receive  every  possible  con- 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PEOBLEMS          317 

sideration.    The  county  council  has  improved  their    CHAP.  ix. 
wages,  has  found  a  way  to  increase  their  holidays.    Provisions 

r.  ,.  J  .'     for  the  Fire 

and  is  now  proceeding  to  construct  commodious  resi-  Department, 
dential  quarters,  in  connection  with  the  fire  stations, 
for  the  families  of  about  400  married  men.    To  quote 
from  the  annual  review  in  1894  of  Sir  John  Hutton, 
the  esteemed  chairman  of  the  council : 

The  present  strength  of  the  Fire  Brigade  stands  at  846 ;  the 
number  of  land  fire-engine  stations  is  56 ;  of  street  stations,  53 ; 
and  of  fire-escape  stations,  180,  together  with  a  large  number  of   Statistics  of 
manual  fire-engines,  hose-carts,   ladder-trucks,  vans,  ladders,         etc. 
and  35  miles  of  hose  in  efficient  condition. 

London  does  not  suffer  from  many  serious  fires. 
For  instance,  in  1891  there  were  only  seven  of  any 
consequence,  whereas  in  1881,  when  London  was  less 
populous,  there  were  nine.  There  are  American  towns 
of  50,000  people  that  in  some  years  have  as  great  a 
number  of  disastrous  fires  as  London,  which  has  just 
a  hundred  times  as  great  a  population. 

The  Fire  Departments  of  New  York  and  Chicago 

London  s 

employ  a  considerably  larger  force  of  men  than  that   department 

compared 

of  London,  while  those  of  Philadelphia,  Boston,  and  with  those  of 

__          _  _  _  _  _  _  _  American 

Brooklyn  are  three  fourths  as  large.  It  costs  more  cities. 
than  twice  as  much  to  maintain  the  New  York  depart- 
ment, while  the  Chicago  and  Boston  departments  cost 
somewhat  more  than  that  of  London,  and  the  Phila- 
delphia and  Brooklyn  departments  are  nearly  as  ex- 
pensive. There  has,  under  the  county  council,  been 
an  enormous  increase  in  the  number  of  fire  hydrants 
in  London,  which  at  the  end  of  1894  were  approaching 
20,000,  only  a  small  fraction  of  that  number  having 
been  in  existence  in  1888.  By  way  of  comparison, 
Chicago  had  6400  hydrants  in  1890,  Philadelphia 
had  7400,  and  New  York  had  8500.  The  system  of  hydrants. 
electric  alarms  has  also  been  made  very  complete  in 


318 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


A  paradise 
for  insurance 
companies. 


agency. 


London's 
debt. 


London.  Sir  John  Hutton  complains  that  London 
is  becoming  quite  too  much  a  paradise  for  the  insur- 
ance companies,  and  some  of  the  extreme  collectivists 
begin  to  suggest  a  municipal  insurance  department  to 
benefit  by  the  improved  efficiency  of  the  Fire  Brigade. 

The  financial  operations  of  the  county  council  are 
extensive  and  complicated  because  it  acts  in  the 
capacity  of  a  borrowing  authority  for  all  the  local 
governing  bodies  of  the  metropolis.  This  arrange- 
ment, obviously,  enables  the  vestries  and  other  local 
agencies  to  obtain  money  at  better  rates  than  they 
could  secure  for  themselves.  In  1894  the  council's 
total  outstanding  bonded  debt  was  £33,000,000  ($165,- 
000,000),  of  which  less  than  £19,000,000  was  its  own 
net  obligation,  while  £14,000,000  represented  loans 
made  to  minor  bodies.  Most  of  the  council's  debt  is 
an  inheritance  from  the  Board  of  Works,  and  repre- 
sents main  drainage,  street  improvements,  etc.  The 
council  has  been  spending  on  capital  account  about 
$5,000,000  a  year,  while  extinguishing  maturing  in- 
debtedness at  about  half  that  rate.  If  the  debts  of  the 
old  City,  and  all  kinds  of  local  obligations  that  per- 
tain to  public  bodies  exercising  jurisdiction  within 
dlbtfof6  the  limits  of  the  metropolis,  were  aggregated,  the  to- 
auLthoritL.  tal  would  perhaps  be  £45,000,000,  or  $225,000,000  —  a 
per  capita  debt  of  £9,  or  $45.  The  per  capita  debt  of 
Manchester  exceeds  $100;  that  of  Liverpool  is  about 
$75  and  that  of  Birmingham  is  $80.  But  these  pro- 
vincial towns  have  incurred  most  of  their  municipal 
indebtedness  for  in  vestments  that  are  productive  assets 
and  that  provide  for  their  own  interest  and  sinking- 
fund  charges,  so  that  a  large  local  debt  signifies  no 
added  burden  for  the  ratepayer,  but  quite  the  con- 
trary. The  remunerative  assets  of  all  these  towns 
have  a  per  capita  value  far  exceeding  the  total  indebt- 


Cpmpared 

with  other 

towns. 


METEOPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS          319 

edness  for  all  purposes.     In  London,  however,  the    CHAP.  ix. 
situation  is  wholly  different.    Private  interests  derive    . 

*  No  prodnc- 

profit  in  London  from  the  sources  which  feed  muni-    tive  a88ete- 
cipal  revenue  in  the  other  towns,  and  the  burden  of 
the  London  debt  falls  squarely  upon  the  shoulders  of 
the  ratepayers.     London  now  borrows  at  2J  per  cent, 
interest,  though  its  bonds  at  this  rate  have  not  yet 
commanded  par.    Sir  John  Hutton,  in  view  of  the  re- 
markable success  of  the  Paris  municipal  loans,  issued     interest 
in  small  bonds  for  which  the  popular  demand  is  far  Bmanbondt 
beyond  the  supply,  is  advocating  in  the  London  coun- 
cil a  similar  system  of  direct  popular  loans  in  the  form 
of  bonds  of  very  small  denominations. 
As  to  current  revenue  and  expenditure,  the  follow- 

.,..,_.  Revenueand 

ing  summary  statement  made  in  1894  aggregates  the  expenditure, 
transactions  of  all  the  London  governing  bodies,  great 
and  small : 

The  government  of  London  costs,  in  round  figures,  £11,000,000 
($55,000,000)  a  year,  which  is  equal  to  a  rate  of  nearly  seven 
shillings  in  the  pound.  Receipts  from  rates  meet  71.67  per  cent, 
of  the  total  expenditure.  Imperial  grants  amount  to  11.50  per 
cent.,  and  income  from  fines,  dues,  rent  and  other  sources,  makes 
up  the  remainder.  Over  £2,500,000  is  spent  on  London's  poor, 
and  £1,900,000  in  educating  the  children  at  board  schools.  Ves- 
tries and  district  boards  spend  over  £2,000,000,  the  county 
council  spends  £1,900,000,  and  the  police  cost  £1,700,000. 

Of  the  nearly  $10,000,000  expended  in  1893  by  the 
council,  the  maintenance  of  the  sewers  and  sewage 
system  cost  about  $1,200,000,  the  Fire  Brigade  $700,- 
000,  the  management  of  parks  nearly  $500,000,  and 
the  asylums  department  about  $300,000.  The  techni- 
cal education  board  has  attained  the  position  of  a 
heavy  spending  department,  and  the  other  outlets  for 
public  money  are  not  few. 

It  is  difficult  to  translate  the  British  rating  system 
into  terms  of  local  taxation  that  would  permit  close 


320 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BEITAIN 


CHAP.  IX. 


English 

rates  and 

American 

taxes. 


The  burden 
about  equal. 


The  English- 
man gets 
more  for  his 
money. 


Lessons  of 
warning. 


comparison  with  American  tax-rates.  In  the  United 
States  local  taxes  are  paid  by  owners  upon  the  as- 
sessed capital  value  of  property,  while  in  England 
they  are  paid  by  occupiers  upon  the  assessed  yearly 
rental  value  of  the  premises  inhabited  or  otherwise 
used.  We  may,  however,  take  the  case  of  a  house 
that  is  assessed  at  £20  ($100)  rental  in  London,  and 
assume  that  a  like  house  would  be  assessed  at  $1800 
in  an  American  city.  The  sum  total  of  all  local  Lon- 
don rates  averages  seven  shillings  in  the  £,  and  the 
amount  paid  to  the  rate-collectors  on  houses  of  this 
valuation  would  be  £7  or  $35  a  year.  A  two  per 
cent,  tax  levy  in  an  American  city  —  two  per  cent, 
being  perhaps  an  average  total  rate  —  would  amount 
to  $36  for  a  house  assessed  at  $1800.  So  far  as  I  am 
able  to  compare,  I  am  led  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
actual  rates  of  local  taxation  in  English  and  American 
cities  are  not  widely  divergent.  In  one  country  the 
owner  is  taxed,  and  in  the  other  the  tenant  is  made  to 
pay.  I  shall  not  venture  to  express  an  opinion  as  to 
the  real  and  final  distribution  of  the  burden.  It  is  a 
debatable  topic.  But  that  the  citizens  of  English 
towns  obtain  far  more  than  Americans  for  the  money 
they  pay  to  the  local  tax-gatherer  is  a  proposition 
that  is  too  obvious  to  admit  of  any  discussion. 

In  conclusion,  then,  it  may  justly  be  maintained 
that  there  is  much  in  the  governmental  arrangements 
of  London  that  is  instructive  and  admirable,  and  still 
more  that  is  commendable  in  the  spirit  of  reform  and 
progress  that  is  now  awake  and  active  there.  But 
perhaps  the  chief  lessons  for  us  in  America  are  les- 
sons of  warning.  If  London,  within  the  lifetime  of 
men  still  in  their  prime,  had  taken  due  precautions, 
what  errors  might  have  been  averted !  London  is  now 
creating  a  park  system,  and  acquiring  land  that  has 
quadrupled  in  value  within  thirty  years.  London  is 


METROPOLITAN  TASKS  AND  PROBLEMS  321 

widening  and  straightening  streets,  and  incurring  CHAP.  ix. 
thereby  the  expense  of  appropriating  frontage  that 
costs  twice  as  much  now  as  it  would  have  cost  a  few  negligence. 
years  ago.  The  people  of  London  have  been  compelled 
to  pay  hundreds  of  millions  as  a  penalty  for  their  neg- 
lect to  provide  a  public  water-supply.  They  suffer  an 
inestimable  loss  in  convenience  and  actual  money 
through  the  haphazard  nature  of  passenger  transpor- 
tation facilities.  An  intelligent  system  might  have 
been  devised  if  the  matter  had  received  due  attention 
thirty  years  ago.  If  London  had  provided  suitable 
building  regulations  forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  and  for- 
bidden faulty  and  insanitary  construction,  enormous 
subsequent  expenses  of  demolition  would  have  been 
averted.  If  the  ground-rent  system  had  not  been  al- 
lowed to  grow  insidiously  through  the  past  generations, 
the  general  character  of  London,  architecturally  and 
in  other  respects,  would  have  been  radically  improved. 
Our  American  cities,  studying  the  experience  of  Old  forethought. 
World  centers  like  London,  cannot  exercise  too  great 
forethought  in  preparing  for  the  greatness  that  in- 
evitably awaits  them. 


I.- 21 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  I 

[CHIEF    PROVISIONS    OP] 

THE  ENGLISH  MUNICIPAL  CODE1 

THE  municipal  corporation  of  a  borough  shall  bear  the  name  of  the 
mayor,  aldermen,  and  burgesses  of  the  borough,  or,  in  the  case  of  a 
city,  the  mayor,  aldermen,  and  citizens  of  the  city. 

• 

BURGESSES 

A  person  shall  not  be  deemed  a  burgess  for  any  purpose  of  this  act  un- 
less he  is  enrolled  as  a  burgess. 

A  person  shall  not  be  entitled  to  be  enrolled  as  a  burgess  unless  he  is 
qualified  as  follows : 

(a)  Is  of  full  age ;  and 

(6)  Is  on  the  fifteenth  of  July  in  any  year,  and  has  been  during  the  whole 
of  the  then  last  preceding  twelve  months  in  occupation,  joint  or  several,  of 
any  house,  warehouse,  counting-house,  shop,  or  other  building  (in  this  act 
referred  to  as  a  qualifying  property)  in  the  borough ;  and 

(c)  Has  during  the  whole  of  those  twelve  months  resided  in  the  borough, 
or  within  seven  miles  thereof ;  and 

(d)  Has  been  rated  in  respect  of  the  qualifying  property  to  all  poor  rates 
made  during  those  twelve  months  for  the  parish  wherein  the  property  is 
situate ;  and 

(e)  Has,  on  or  before  the  twentieth  of  the  same  July,  paid  all  such  rates, 
including  borough  rates  (if  any),  as  have  become  payable  by  him  in  respect 
of  the  qualifying  property  up  to  the  then  last  preceding  fifth  of  January. 

Every  person  so  qualified  shall  be  entitled  to  be  enrolled  as  a  burgess, 
unless  he  — 

(«)  Is  an  alien ;   or 

(6)  Has,  within  the  twelve  months  aforesaid,  received  union  or  parochial 
relief  or  other  alms ;  or 

(c)  Is  disentitled  under  any  act  of  Parliament. 

THE    COUNCIL 

The  municipal  corporation  of  a  borough  shall  be  capable  of  acting  by  the 
council  of  the  borough,  and  the  council  shall  exercise  all  powers  vested  in 
the  corporation  by  this  act,  or  otherwise. 

1  The  Municipal  Corporations  (Consolidation)  Act  of  1882  provides  a  general 
•  •'institution  for  all  the  municipalities  of  England  and  Wales.  Legislation  for 
Scotland  and  Ireland  makes  similar  provisiona.  I  have  selected  such  parts  of  the 
Code  as  explain  the  system. 

I.— 21.*  323 


326          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

The  council  shall  consist  of  the  mayor,  aldermen,  and  councilors. 

The  councilors  shall  be  fit  persons  elected  by  the  burgesses. 

A  person  shall  not  be  qualified  to  be  elected  or  to  be  a  councilor 
unless  he  — 

(a)  Is  enrolled  and  entitled  to  be  enrolled  as  a  burgess ;  or 

(6)  Being  entitled  to  be  so  enrolled  in  all  respects,  except  that  of  residence, 
is  resident  beyond  seven  miles  but  within  fifteen  miles  of  the  borough,  and 
is  entered  in  the  separate  non-resident  list  directed  by  this  act  to  be  made ; 
and 

(c)  In  either  of  those  cases  is  seized  or  possessed  of  real  or  personal 
property  or  both,  to  the  value  or  amount,  in  the  case  of  a  borough  having 
four  or  more  wards,  of  the  annual  value  of  thirty  pounds,  and  in  the  case  of 
any  other  borough  of  fifteen  pounds.  « 

Provided,  that  every  person  shall  be  qualified  to  be  elected  and  to  be  a 
councilor,  who  is,  at  the  time  of  election,  qualified  to  elect  to  the  office  of 
councilor ;  which  last-mentioned  qualification  for  being  elected  shall  be  alter- 
native for  and  shall  not  repeal  or  take  away  any  other  qualification. 

But  if  a  person  qualified  under  the  last  foregoing  proviso  ceases  for  six 
months  to  reside  in  the  borough,  he  shall  cease  to  be  qualified  under  that 
proviso,  and  his  office  shall  become  vacant,  unless  he  was  at  the  time  of 
his  election  and  continues  to  be  qualified  in  some  other  manner. 

A  person  shall  be  disqualified  for  being  elected  and  for  being  a  coun- 
cilor, if  and  while  he  — 

(a)  Is  an  elective  auditor  or  a  revising  assessor,  or  holds  any  office  or 
place  of  profit,  other  than  that  of  mayor  or  sheriff,  in  the  gift  or  disposal 
of  the  council ;  or 

(6)  Is  in  holy  orders,  or  the  regular  minister  of  a  dissenting  congrega- 
tion ;  or 

(c)  Has,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  himself  or  his  partner,  any  share  or 
interest  in  any  contract  or  employment  with,  by,  or  on  behalf  of  the 
council. 

But  a  person  shall  not  be  so  disqualified,  or  be  deemed  to  have  any  share 
or  interest  in  such  a  contract  or  employment  by  reason  only  of  his  having 
any  share  or  interest  in  — 

(a)  Any  lease,  sale,  or  purchase  of  land,  or  any  agreement  for  the 
same ;  or 

(&)  Any  agreement  for  the  loan  of  money,  or  any  security  for  the  pay- 
ment of  money  only;  or 

(c)  Any  newspaper  in  which  any  advertisement  relating  to  the  affairs  of 
the  borough  or  council  is  inserted  ;   or 

(d)  Any  company  which  contracts  with  the  council  for  lighting  or  sup- 
plying with  water  or  insuring  against  fire  any  part  of  the  borough ;  or 

(c)  Any  railway  company,   or  other  company  incorporated  by  act  of 
Parliament  or  royal  charter,  or  under  the  Companies'  Act,  1862. 
The  term  of  office  of  a  councilor  shall  be  three  years. 
On  the  ordinary  day  of  election  of  councilors  in  every  year  one  third  of 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  327 

the  whole  number  of  councilors  for  the  borough  or  for  the  ward,  as  the  case 
may  be,  shall  go  out  of  office,  and  their  places  shall  be  filled  by  election. 

The  third  to  go  oub  shall  be  the  councilors  who  have  been  longest  in  office 
without  reelection. 

ALDERMEN 

The  aldermen  shall  be  fit  persons  elected  by  the  council. 

The  number  of  aldermen  shall  be  one  third  of  the  number  of  councilors. 

A  person  shall  not  be  qualified  to  be  elected  or  to  be  an  alderman  unless 
he  is  a  councilor  or  qualified  to  be  a  councilor. 

If  a  councilor  is  elected  to,  and  accepts,  the  office  of  alderman  he  vacates 
his  office  of  councilor. 

The  term  of  office  of  an  alderman  shall  be  six  years. 

On  the  ordinary  day  of  election  of  aldermen  in  every  third  year  one  half 
of  the  whole  number  of  aldermen  shall  go  out  of  office,  and  their  places  shall 
be  filled  by  election. 

The  half  to  go  out  shall  be  those  who  have  been  aldermen  for  the  longest 
time  without  reelection. 

THE    MAYOR 

The  mayor  shall  be  a  fit  person  elected  by  the  council  from  among  the 
aldermen  or  councilors  or  persons  qualified  to  be  such. 

An  outgoing  alderman  is  eligible. 

The  term  of  office  of  the  mayor  shall  be  one  year,  but  he  shall  continue  in 
office  until  his  successor  has  accepted  office  and  made  and  subscribed  the 
required  declaration. 

He  shall  receive  such  remuneration  as  the  council  think  reasonable. 

He  shall,  subject  to  the  provisions  of  this  act  respecting  justices,  have 
precedence  in  all  places  in  the  borough. 

The  mayor  may  from  time  to  time  appoint  an  alderman  or  councilor  to 
act  as  deputy  mayor  during  the  illness  or  absence  of  the  mayor. 

The  appointment  shall  be  signified  to  the  council  in  writing,  and  be  re- 
corded in  their  minutes. 

A  deputy  mayor  may,  while  acting  as  such,  do  all  acts  which  the  mayor 
as  such  might  do,  except  that  he  shall  not  take  the  chair  at  a  meeting  of  the 
council,  unless  specially  appointed  by  the  meeting  to  do  so,  and  shall  not, 
unless  he  is  a  justice,  act  as  a  justice  or  in  any  judicial  capacity. 

OFFICERS    OF    COUNCIL 

The  council  shall  from  time  to  time  appoint  a  fit  person,  not  a  member  of 
the  council,  to  be  the  town  clerk  of  the  borough. 

The  town  clerk  shall  hold  office  during  the  pleasure  of  the  council. 

He  shall  have  the  charge  and  custody  of,  and  be  responsible  for,  the  char- 
ters, deeds,  records  and  documents  of  the  borough,  and  they  shall  be  kept 
as  the  council  direct. 

A  vacancy  in  the  office  shall  be  filled  within  twenty-one  days  after  its 
occurrence. 


328          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

In  case  of  the  illness  or  absence  of  the  town  clerk,  the  council  may  ap- 
point a  deputy  town  clerk,  to  hold  office  during  their  pleasure. 

All  things  required  or  authorized  by  law  to  be  done  by  or  to  the  town 
clerk  may  be  done  by  or  to  the  deputy  town  clerk. 

The  council  shall  from  time  to  time  appoint  a  fit  person,  not  a  member  of 
the  council,  to  be  the  treasurer  of  the  borough. 

The  treasurer  shall  hold  office  during  the  pleasure  of  the  council. 

A  vacancy  in  the  office  shall  be  filled  within  twenty-one  days  after  its 
occurrence. 

The  offices  of  town  clerk  and  treasurer  shall  not  be  held  by  the  same 
person. 

The  council  shall  from  time  to  time  appoint  such  other  officers  as  have 
been  usually  appointed  in  the  borough,  or  as  the  council  think  necessary, 
and  may  at  any  time  discontinue  the  appointment  of  any  officer  appearing 
to  them  not  necessary  to  be  reappointed. 

The  council  shall  require  every  officer  appointed  by  them  to  give  such 
security  as  they  think  proper  for  the  due  execution  of  his  office,  and  shall 
allow  him  such  remuneration  as  they  think  reasonable. 

Every  officer  appointed  by  the  council  shall  at  such  times  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  his  office,  or  within  three  months  after  his  ceasing  to  hold  it, 
and  in  such  manner  as  the  council  direct,  deliver  to  the  council,  or  as  they 
direct,  a  true  account  in  writing  of  all  matters  committed  to  his  charge,  and 
of  his  receipts  and  payments,  with  vouchers,  and  a  list  of  persons  from 
whom  money  is  due  for  purposes  of  this  act  in  connection  with  his  office, 
showing  the  amount  due  from  each. 

Every  such  officer  shall  pay  all  money  due  from  him  to  the  treasurer,  or 
as  the  council  direct. 

If  any  such  officer — 

(a)  Refuses  or  wilfully  neglects  to  deliver  any  account  or  list  which  he 
ought  to  deliver,  or  any  voucher  relating  thereto,  or  to  make  any  payment 
which  he  ought  to  make ;  or 

(6)  After  three  days'  notice  in  writing,  signed  by  the  town  clerk  or  by 
three  members  of  the  council,  given  or  left  at  his  usual  or  last-known  place 
of  abode,  refuses  or  wilfully  neglects  to  deliver  to  the  council,  or  as  they 
direct,  any  book  or  document  which  he  ought  so  to  deliver,  or  to  give  satis- 
faction respecting  it  to  the  council  or  as  they  direct,  a  court  of  summary 
jurisdiction  having  jurisdiction  where  the  officer  is  or  resides  may,  by  sum- 
mary order,  require  him  to  make  such  delivery  or  payment,  or  to  give  such 
satisfaction. 

But  nothing  in  this  section  shall  affect  any  remedy  by  action  against  any 
such  officer  or  his  surety,  except  that  the  officer  shall  not  be  both  sued  by 
action  and  proceeded  against  summarily  for  the  same  cause. 

MEETINGS    AND    PROCEEDINGS    OF    COUNCIL 

The  rules  in  the  second  schedule  shall  be  observed. 
The  schedule  is  as  follows : 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  329 

(1)  The  council  shall  hold  four  quarterly  meetings  in  every  year  for  the 
transaction  of  general  business. 

(2)  The  quarterly  meetings  shall  be  held  at  noon  on  each  ninth  of  No- 
vember, and  at  such  hour  on  such  other  three  days  before  the  first  of  No- 
vember the  next  following  as  the  council  at  the  quarterly  meeting  in  Novem- 
ber decide  or  afterward  from  time  to  time  by  standing  order  determine. 

(3)  The  mayor  may  at  any  time  call  a  meeting  of  the  council. 

(4)  If  the  mayor  refuses  to  call  a  meeting  after  a  requisition  for  that 
purpose,  signed  by  five  members  of  the  council,  has  been  presented  to  him, 
any  five  members  of  the  council  may  forthwith,  on  that  refusal,  call  a  meet- 
ing.   If  the  mayor  (without  so  refusing)  does  not  within  seven  days  after 
such  presentation  call  a  meeting,  any  five  members  of  the  council  may,  on 
the  expiration  of  those  seven  days,  call  a  meeting. 

(5)  Three  clear  days  at  least  before  any  meeting  of  the  council,  notice  of 
the  time  and  place  of  the  intended  meeting,  signed  by  the  mayor,  or,  if  the 
meeting  is  called  by  members  of  the  council,  by  those  members,  shall  be 
fixed  on  the  town  hall.     Where  the  meeting  is  called  by  members  of  the 
council,  the  notice  shall  specify  the  business  proposed  to  be  transacted 
thereat. 

(6)  Three  clear  days  at  least  before  any  meeting  of  the  council,  a  sum- 
mons to  attend  the  meeting,  specifying  the  business  proposed  to  be  trans- 
acted thereat,  and  signed  by  the  town  clerk,  shall  be  left  or  delivered  by 
post  in  a  registered  letter  at  the  usual  place  of  abode  of  every  member  of 
the  council,  three  clear  days  at  least  before  the  meeting. 

(7)  Want  of  service  of  the  summons  on  any  member  of  the  council  shall 
not  affect  the  validity  of  a  meeting. 

(8)  No  business  shall  be  transacted  at  a  meeting  other  than  that  speci- 
fied in  the  summons  relating  thereto,  except  in  case  of  a  quarterly  meeting, 
business  prescribed  by  this  act  to  be  transacted  thereat. 

(9)  At  every  meeting  of  the  council,  the  mayor,  if  present,  shall  be  chair- 
man.   If  the  mayor  is  absent,  then  the  deputy  mayor,  if  chosen  for  that 
purpose  by  the  members  of  the  council  then  present,  shall  be  chairman. 
If  both  the  mayor  and  the  deputy  mayor  are  absent,  or  the  deputy  mayor, 
being  present,  is  not  chosen,  then  such  alderman,  or,  in  the  absence  of  all 
the  aldermen,  such  councilor,  as  the  members  of  the  council  then  present 
choose  shall  be  chairman. 

(10)  All  acts  of  the  council,  and  all  questions  coming  or  arising  before  the 
council,  may  be  done  and  decided  by  the  majority  of  such  members  of  the 
council  as  are  present  and  vote  at  a  meeting  held  in  pursuance  of  this  act, 
the  whole  number  present  at  the  meeting,  whether  voting  or  not,  not  being 
less  than  one  third  of  the  number  of  the  whole  council. 

(11)  In  case  of  equality  of  votes,  the  chairman  of  the  meeting  shall  have  a 
second  or  casting  vote. 

(12)  Minutes  of  the  proceedings  of  every  meeting  shall  be  drawn  up  and 
fairly  entered  in  a  book  kept  for  that  purpose,  and  shall  be  signed  in  man- 
ner authorized  by  this  act. 


330          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

(13)  Subject  to  the  foregoing  provisions  of  this  schedule,  the  council  may 
from  time  to  time  make  standing  orders  for  the  regulation  of  their  proceed- 
ings and  business,  and  vary  or  revoke  the  same. 


COMMITTEES  AND  OTHEK  MATTERS 

The  council  may  from  time  to  time  appoint  out  of  their  own  body  such  and 
so  many  committees,  either  of  a  general  or  special  nature,  and  consisting  of 
such  number  of  persons  as  they  think  fit,  for  any  purposes  which,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  council,  would  be  better  regulated  and  managed  by  means  of 
such  committees ;  but  the  acts  of  every  such  committee  shall  be  submitted 
to  the  council  for  their  approval. 

A  member  of  the  council  shall  not  vote  or  take  part  in  the  discussion  of 
any  matter  before  the  council  or  a  committee  in  which  he  has,  directly  or 
indirectly,  by  himself  or  his  partner,  any  pecuniary  interest. 

No  act  or  proceeding  of  the  council,  or  of  a  committee,  shall  be  questioned 
on  account  of  any  vacancy  in  their  body. 

A  minute  of  proceedings  at  a  meeting  of  the  council,  or  of  a  committee, 
signed  at  the  same  or  next  ensuing  meeting  by  the  mayor,  or  by  a  member  of 
the  council  or  of  the  committee,  describing  himself  as,  or  appearing  to  be, 
chairman  of  the  meeting  at  which  the  minute  is  signed,  shall  be  received  in 
evidence  without  further  proof. 

Until  the  contrary  is  proved,  every  meeting  of  the  council,  or  of  a  com- 
mittee, in  respect  of  the  proceedings  whereof  a  minute  has  been  so  made, 
shall  be  deemed  to  have  been  duly  convened  and  held,  and  all  the  members 
of  the  meeting  shall  be  deemed  to  have  been  duly  qualified ;  and  where  the 
proceedings  are  proceedings  of  a  committee,  the  committee  shall  be  deemed 
to  have  been  duly  constituted,  and  to  have  had  power  to  deal  with  the  matters 
referred  to  in  the  minutes. 

BY-LAWS 

The  council  may,  from  time  to  time,  make  such  by-laws  as  to  them  seem 
meet  for  the  good  rule  and  government  of  the  borough,  and  for  prevention 
and  suppression  of  nuisances  not  already  punishable  in  a  summary  manner 
by  virtue  of  any  act  in  force  throughout  the  borough,  and  may  thereby 
appoint  such  fines,  not  exceeding  in  any  case  five  pounds,  as  they  deem 
necessary  for  the  prevention  and  suppression  of  offenses  against  the  same. 

Such  a  by-law  shall  not  be  made  unless  at  least  two  thirds  of  the  whole 
number  of  the  council  are  present. 

Such  a  by-law  shall  not  come  into  force  until  the  expiration  of  forty  days 
after  a  copy  thereof  has  been  fixed  on  the  town  hall. 

Such  a  by-law  shall  not  come  into  force  until  the  expiration  of  forty  days 
after  a  copy  thereof,  sealed  with  the  corporate  seal,  has  been  sent  to  the 
secretary  of  state ;  and  if  within  those  forty  days  the  Queen,  with  the  advice 
of  her  Privy  Council,  disallows  the  by-law,  or  part  thereof,  the  by-law,  or 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  .  331 

part  disallowed,  shall  not  come  into  force ;  but  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the 
Queen,  at  any  time  within  those  forty  days,  to  enlarge  the  time  within  which 
the  by-law  shall  not  come  into  force,  and  in  that  case  the  by-law  shall  not 
come  into  force  until  after  the  expiration  of  that  enlarged  time. 
Any  offense  against  such  a  by-law  may  be  prosecuted  summarily. 


ACCOUNTS    AND    AUDIT 

There  shall  be  three  borough  auditors  —  two  elected  by  the  burgesses, 
called  elective  auditors,  and  one  appointed  by  the  mayor,  called  the  mayor's 
auditor. 

An  elective  auditor  must  be  qualified  to  be  a  councilor,  but  may  not  be  a 
member  of  the  council,  or  the  town  clerk,  or  the  treasurer. 

The  mayor's  auditor  must  be  a  member  of  the  council. 

The  term  of  office  of  each  auditor  shall  be  one  year. 

The  appointment  of  the  mayor's  auditor  shall  be  made  on  the  ordinary  day 
of  election  of  the  elective  auditors. 

On  a  casual  vacancy  in  his  office  an  appointment  to  fill  it  shall  be  made 
within  ten  days  after  the  occurrence  of  the  vacancy. 

The  treasurer  shall  make  up  his  accounts  half  yearly  to  such  dates  as  the 
council,  with  the  approval  of  the  Local  Government  Board,  from  time  to  time 
appoint,  and  subject  to  any  such  appointment  to  the  dates  in  use  at  the 
commencement  of  this  act. 

The  treasurer  shall  within  one  month  from  the  date  to  which  he  is  re- 
quired to  make  up  his  accounts  in  each  half  year,  submit  them,  with  the 
necessary  vouchers  and  papers,  to  the  borough  auditors,  and  they  shall 
audit  them. 

After  the  audit  of  the  accounts  for  the  second  half  of  each  financial  year, 
the  treasurer  shall  print  a  full  abstract  of  his  accounts  for  that  year. 

The  town  clerk  shall  make  a  return  to  the  Local  Government  Board  of  the 
receipts  and  expenditure  of  the  municipal  corporation  for  each  financial 
year. 

The  return  shall  be  made  for  the  financial  year  ending  on  the  twenty -fifth 
of  March,  or  on  such  other  day  as  the  Local  Government  Board,  on  the  appli- 
cation of  the  council,  from  time  to  time  prescribe. 

The  return  shall  be  in  such  form  and  contain  such  particulars  as  the  Local 
Government  Board  from  time  to  time  direct. 

The  return  shall  be  sent  to  the  Local  Government  Board  within  one  month 
after  the  completion  of  the  audit  for  the  second  half  of  each  financial  year. 

If  the  town  clerk  fails  to  make  any  return  required  under  this  section,  he 
shall  for  each  offense  be  liable  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  twenty  pounds,  to  be 
recovered  by  action  on  behalf  of  the  Crown  in  the  High  Court. 

The  Local  Government  Board  shall  in  each  year  prepare  an  abstract  of  the 
returns  made  in  pursuance  of  this  section,  under  general  heads,  and  it  shall 
be  laid  before  both  houses  of  Parliament. 


332          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 

REVISING    ASSESSORS 

ID  every  borough  whereof  no  part  of  the  area  is  coextensive  with  or  in- 
cluded within  the  area  of  a  parliamentary  borough,  there  shall  be  two  revising 
assessors  elected  by  the  burgesses. 

Every  person  shall  be  eligible  who  is  qualified  to  be  a  councilor  and  is  not 
a  member  of  the  council,  or  the  town  clerk,  or  treasurer. 

The  term  of  office  of  each  revising  assessor  shall  be  one  year. 

Every  revising  assessor  shall,  as  soon  as  conveniently  may  be  after  his 
election,  and  from  time  to  time  as  occasion  requires,  appoint,  by  writing 
signed  by  him,  a  person  eligible  to  the  office  of  revising  assessor,  to  be  his 
deputy,  to  act  for  him  in  case  of  his  illness  or  incapacity  to  act. 


ARRANGEMENT    OP    WARD    DIVISIONS 

If  two  thirds  of  the  council  of  a  borough  agree  to  petition,  and  the  coun- 
cil thereupon  petition  the  Queen  for  the  division  of  the  borough  into  wards, 
or  for  the  alteration  of  the  number  and  boundaries  of  its  wards,  it  shall  be 
lawful  for  Her  Majesty  from  time  to  time,  by  order  in  council,  to  fix  the 
number  of  wards  into  which  the  borough  shall  be  divided;  and  the  borough 
shall  be  divided  into  that  number  of  wards. 

Notice  of  the  petition,  and  of  the  time  when  it  pleases  Her  Majesty  to 
order  that  the  same  be  taken  into  consideration  by  her  Privy  Council,  shall 
be  published  in  the  "London  Gazette"  one  month  at  least  before  the 
petition  is  so  considered. 

When  an  order  in  council  has  been  so  made,  the  secretary  of  state  shall 
appoint  a  commissioner  to  prepare  a  scheme  for  determining  the  boundaries 
of  the  wards  and  apportioning  the  councilors  among  them. 

In  case  of  division  into  wards,  the  commissioner  shall  apportion  all  the 
councilors  among  the  wards. 

In  case  of  an  alteration  of  wards,  he  shall  so  apportion  among  the  altered 
wards  the  councilors  for  those  wards  as  to  provide  for  their  continuing  to 
represent  as  large  a  number  as  possible  of  their  former  constituents. 

In  either  case,  each  councilor  shall  hold  his  office  in  the  ward  to  which 
he  is  assigned  for  the  same  time  that  he  would  have  held  it  had  the  borough 
remained  undivided  or  the  wards  unaltered. 

In  case  of  division  into  wards  the  returning  officer  at  the  first  election  for 
each  ward  held  after  the  division  shall,  notwithstanding  anything  in  this 
act,  be  the  mayor  or  a  person  appointed  by  the  mayor. 

If  by  reason  of  any  division  or  alteration  under  this  section  any  doubt 
arises  as  to  which  councilor  shall  go  out  of  office,  the  doubt  may  be  deter- 
mined by  the  council. 

The  division  of  a  borough  into  a  greater  number  of  wards  shall  not  affect 
the  qualification  of  aldermen  or  councilors. 

The  number  of  councilors  assigned  to  each  ward  shall  be  a  number  di- 
visible by  three ;  and  in  fixing  their  number  the  commissioner  shall,  as  far 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  333 

as  he  deems  it  practicable,  have  regard  as  well  to  the  number  of  persons 
rated  in  the  ward  as  the  aggregate  rating  of  the  ward. 

The  commissioner  shall  make  the  scheme  in  duplicate,  and  shall  deliver 
one  of  the  duplicates  to  the  town  clerk,  and  shall  send  the  other  to  the 
secretary  of  state,  to  be  submitted  by  him  to  Her  Majesty  in  council  for 
approval. 

The  scheme  shall  be  published  in  the  "London  Gazette,"  and  shall  come 
into  operation  at  the  date  of  that  publication,  and  thenceforth  the  boun- 
daries of  wards  and  apportionment  of  councilors  determined  and  made  by 
the  scheme  shall  be  observed  and  be  in  force. 

QUALIFICATIONS,    VACANCIES,   AND    NON-ACCEPTANCE    PENALTIES 

Every  qualified  person  elected  to  a  corporate  office,  unless  exempt  under 
this  section  or  otherwise  by  law,  either  shall  accept  the  office  by  making  and 
subscribing  the  declaration  required  by  this  act  within  five  days  after  notice 
of  election,  or  shall,  in  lieu  thereof,  be  liable  to  pay  to  the  council  a  fine  of 
such  amount  not  exceeding,  in  case  of  an  alderman,  councilor,  elective  au- 
ditor, or  revising  assessor,  fifty  pounds,  and  in  case  of  a  mayor  one  hundred 
pounds,  as  the  council  by  by-law  determine. 

If  there  is  no  by-law  determining  fines,  the  fine,  in  case  of  an  alderman, 
councilor,  elective  auditor,  or  revising  assessor  shall  be  twenty-five  pounds, 
and  in  case  of  a  mayor  fifty  pounds. 

The  persons  exempt  under  this  section  are  : 

(a)  Any  person  disabled  by  lunacy  or  imbecility  of  mind,  or  by  deafness, 
blindness,  or  other  permanent  infirmity  of  body ;  and 

(6)  Any  person  who,  being  above  the  age  of  sixty-five  years  or  having 
within  five  years  before  the  day  of  his  election  either  served  the  office  or 
paid  the  fine  for  non-acceptance  thereof,  claims  exemption  within  five  days 
after  notice  of  his  election. 

A  fine  payable  under  this  section  shall  be  recoverable  summarily. 

A  person  elected  to  a  corporate  office  shall  not,  until  he  has  made  and 
subscribed  before  two  members  of  the  council,  or  the  town  clerk,  a  declara- 
tion as  in  the  eighth  schedule,  act  in  the  office  except  in  administering  that 
declaration. 

A  person  elected  to  a  corporate  office  may  at  any  time,  by  writing  signed 
by  him  and  delivered  to  the  town  clerk,  resign  the  office,  on  payment  of  the 
fine  provided  for  non-acceptance  thereof. 

In  any  such  case  the  council  shall  forthwith  declare  the  office  to  be  vacant, 
and  signify  the  same  by  notice  in  writing,  signed  by  three  members  of  the 
council  and  countersigned  by  the  town  clerk,  and  fixed  on  the  town  hall, 
and  the  office  shall  thereupon  become  vacant. 

No  person  enabled  by  law  to  make  an  affirmation  instead  of  taking  an  oath 
shall  be  liable  to  any  fine  for  non-acceptance  of  office  by  reason  of  his  refusal 
on  conscientious  grounds  to  take  any  oath  or  make  any  declaration  required 
by  this  act  or  to  take  on  himself  the  duties  of  the  office. 


334          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

Any  person  ceasing  to  hold  a  corporate  office  shall,  unless  disqualified  to 
hold  the  office,  be  reeligible. 

The  mayor  and  aldermen  shall,  during  their  respective  offices,  continue  to 
be  members  of  the  council,  notwithstanding  anything  in  this  act  as  to  coun- 
cilors going  out  of  office  at  the  end  of  three  years. 

If  the  mayor,  or  an  alderman,  or  councilor — 

(a)  Is  declared  bankrupt,  or  compounds  by  deed  with  his  creditors,  or 
makes  an  arrangement  or  composition  with  his  creditors,  under  the  Bank- 
ruptcy Act,  1869,  by  deed  or  otherwise  ;  or 

(6)  Is  (except  in  case  of  illness)  continuously  absent  from  the  borough, 
being  mayor,  for  more  than  two  months,  or,  being  alderman  or  councilor, 
for  more  than  six  months ; 

He  shall  thereupon  immediately  become  disqualified  and  shall  cease  to 
hold  the  office. 

In  any  event  the  council  shall  forthwith  declare  the  office  to  be  vacant, 
and  signify  the  same  by  notice  signed  by  three  members  of  the  council,  and 
countersigned  by  the  town  clerk,  and  fixed  on  the  town  hall,  and  the  office 
shall  thereupon  become  vacant. 

Where  a  person  becomes  so  disqualified  by  being  declared  bankrupt,  or 
compounding,  or  making  an  arrangement  or  composition,  as  aforesaid,  the 
disqualification,  as  regards  subsequent  elections,  shall,  in  case  of  bankruptcy, 
cease  on  his  obtaining  his  order  of  discharge,  and  shall,  in  case  of  a  com- 
pounding or  composition  as  aforesaid,  cease  on  payment  of  his  debts  in  full, 
and  shall,  in  case  of  an  arrangement  as  aforesaid,  cease  on  his  obtaining  his 
certificate  of  discharge. 

Where  a  person  becomes  so  disqualified  by  absence,  he  shall  be  liable  to 
the  same  fine  as  for  non-acceptance  of  office,  recoverable  summarily,  but 
the  disqualification  shall,  as  regards  subsequent  elections,  cease  on  his 
return. 

On  a  casual  vacancy  in  a  corporate  office,  an  election  shall  be  held  by  the 
same  persons  and  in  the  same  manner  as  an  election  to  fill  an  ordinary  va- 
cancy ;  and  the  person  elected  shall  hold  the  office  until  the  time  when  the 
person  in  whose  place  he  is  elected  would  regularly  have  gone  out  of  office, 
and  he  shall  then  go  out  of  office. 

In  case  of  more  than  one  casual  vacancy  in  the  office  of  councilor  being 
filled  at  the  same  election,  the  councilor  elected  by  the  smallest  number  of 
votes  shall  be  deemed  to  be  elected  in  the  place  of  him  who  would  regularly 
have  first  gone  out  of  office,  and  the  councilor  elected  by  the  next  smallest 
number  of  votes  shall  be  deemed  to  be  elected  in  the  place  of  him  who  would 
regularly  have  gone  out  of  office,  and  so  with  respect  to  the  others  ;  and  if 
there  has  not  been  a  contested  election,  or  if  any  doubt  arises,  the  order  of 
rotation  shall  be  determined  by  the  council. 

Non-acceptance  of  office  by  a  person  elected  creates  a  casual  vacancy. 

If  any  person  acts  in  a  corporate  office  without  having  made  the  declara- 
tion by  this  act  required,  or  without  being  qualified  at  the  time  of  making 
the  declaration,  or  after  ceasing  to  be  qualified,  or  after  becoming  disquali- 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  335 

fied,  he  shall  for  each  offense  be  liable  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  fifty  pounds, 
recoverable  by  action. 

A  person  being  in  fact  enrolled  in  the  burgess  roll  shall  not  be  liable  to  a 
fine  for  acting  in  a  corporate  office  on  the  ground  only  that  he  was  not  en- 
titled to  be  enrolled  therein. 

The  acts  and  proceedings  of  a  person  in  possession  of  a  corporate  office, 
and  acting  therein,  shall,  notwithstanding  his  disqualification  or  want  of 
qualification,  be  as  valid  and  effectual  as  if  he  had  been  qualified. 

An  election  of  a  person  to  a  corporate  office  shall  not  be  liable  to  be  ques- 
tioned by  reason  of  a  defect  in  the  title,  or  want  of  title,  of  the  person  before 
whom  the  election  was  had,  if  that  person  was  then  in  actual  possession  of, 
or  acting  in,  the  office  giving  the  right  to  preside  at  the  election. 

A  burgess  roll  shall  not  be  liable  to  be  questioned  by  reason  of  a  defect 
in  the  title,  or  want  of  title,  of  the  mayor  or  any  revising  authority  by  whom 
it  is  revised,  if  he  was  then  in  actual  possession  and  exercise  of  the  office  of 
mayor  or  revising  authority. 

If  there  is  no  town  clerk,  and  no  deputy  town  clerk,  or  there  is  no  trea- 
surer, or  the  town  clerk,  deputy  town  clerk,  or  treasurer  (as  the  case  may  be) 
is  incapable  of  acting,  all  acts  by  law  authorized  or  required  to  be  done  by 
or  with  respect  to  the  town  clerk  or  the  treasurer  (as  the  case  may  be)  may, 
subject  to  the  provisions  of  any  other  act,  be  done  by  or  with  respect  to  a 
person  appointed  in  that  behalf  by  the  mayor. 

REGISTRATION    OF    VOTERS 

Where  the  whole  or  part  of  the  area  of  a  borough  is  coextensive  with  or 
included  in  the  area  of  a  parliamentary  borough,  the  lists  of  burgesses  are1 
to  be  made  out  and  revised,  and  claims  and  objections  relating  thereto  are 
to  be  made,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the  Parliamentary  and 
Municipal  Eegistration  Act,  1878. 

When  the  parish  burgess  lists  have  been  revised  and  signed,  the  revising 
authority  shall  deliver  them  to  the  town  clerk,  and  a  printed  copy  thereof, 
examined  by  him  and  signed  by  him,  shall  be  the  burgess  roll  of  the  borough. 

The  burgess  roll  shall  be  completed  on  or  before  the  twentieth  of  October 
in  each  year,  and  shall  come  into  operation  on  the  first  of  November  in  that 
year,  and  shall  continue  in  operation  for  the  twelve  months  beginning  on 
that  day. 

The  names  in  the  burgess  roll  shall  be  numbered  by  wards  or  by  polling 
districts,  unless  in  any  case  the  council  direct  that  the  same  be  numbered 
consecutively  without  reference  to  wards  or  polling  districts. 

Where  the  borough  has  no  wards,  the  burgess  roll  shall  be  made  in' one 
general  roll  for  the  whole  borough. 

Where  the  borough  has  wards,  the  burgess  roll  shall  be  made  in  separate 
rolls,  called  ward  rolls,  one  for  each  ward,  containing  the  names  of  the  per- 
sons entitled  to  vote  in  that  ward,  and  the  ward  rolls  collectively  shall  con- 
stitute the  burgess  roll. 


336          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

A  burgess  shall  not  be  enrolled  in  more  than  one  ward  roll. 

Where  a  duplicate  of  a  burgess  list  is  made  under  section  31  of  the  Parlia- 
mentary and  Municipal  Registration  Act,  1878,  it  shall  have  the  same  effect 
as  the  original,  and  may  be  delivered  instead  thereof. 

Every  person  enrolled  in  the  burgess  roll  shall  be  deemed  to  be  enrolled 
as  a  burgess,  and  every  person  not  enrolled  in  the  burgess  roll  shall  be 
deemed  not  to  be  enrolled  as  a  burgess. 

The  town  clerk  shall  cause  the  parish  burgess  lists,  the  lists  of  claimants 
and  respondents,  and  the  burgess  roll,  to  be  printed,  and  shall  deliver 
printed  copies  to  any  person  on  payment  of  a  reasonable  price  for  each  copy. 

The  overseers  of  each  parish  shall  at  the  same  time  that  they  make  the 
parish  burgess  list  make  a  list  of  the  persons  entitled  in  respect  of  the  oc- 
cupation of  property  in  that  parish  to  be  elected  councilors,  as  being  resident 
within  fifteen  miles  although  beyond  seven  miles  from  the  borough. 

The  provisions  of  this  act  as  to  the  parish  burgess  lists,  and  claims  and 
objections  relating  thereto,  and  the  revision  of  those  lists,  shall,  as  nearly  as 
circumstances  admit,  apply  to  the  lists  made  under  this  section. 

The  town  clerk  shall  arrange  the  names  entered  in  these  lists,  when  re- 
vised, in  alphabetical  order  as  a  separate  list  (in  this  act  called  the  separate 
non-resident  list),  with  an  appropriate  heading,  at  the  end  of  the  burgess  roll. 


ELECTION   OF    COUNCILORS 

Where  a  borough  has  no  wards,  there  shall  be  one  election  of  councilors 
for  the  whole  borough. 

f    Where  a  borough  has  wards,  there  shall  be  a  separate  election  of  coun- 
cilors for  each  ward. 

At  an  election  of  councilors,  a  person  shall  be  entitled  to  subscribe  a 
nomination  paper,  and  to  demand  and  receive  a  voting  paper,  and  to  vote, 
if  he  is  enrolled  in  the  burgess  roll,  and  not  otherwise. 

No  person  shall  subscribe  a  nomination  paper  in  or  for  more  than  one 
ward,  or  vote  in  more  than  one  ward. 

Nothing  in  this  section  shall  entitle  any  person  to  do  any  act  therein  men- 
tioned who  is  prohibited  by  law  from  doing  it,  or  relieve  him  from  any 
penalty  to  which  he  may  be  liable  for  doing  it. 

The  ordinary  day  of  election  of  councilors  shall  be  the  first  of  November. 

At  an  election  of  councilors  for  a  whole  borough  the  returning  officer  shall 
be  the  mayor. 

At  an  election  for  a  ward  the  returning  officer  shall  be  an  alderman  as- 
signed for  that  purpose  by  the  council  at  the  meeting  of  the  ninth  of 
November. 

Nine  days  at  least  before  the  day  for  the  election  of  a  councilor,  the  town 
clerk  shall  prepare  and  sign  a  notice  thereof,  and  publish  it  by  fixing  it  on 
the  town  hall,  and,  in  case  of  a  ward  election,  in  some  conspicuous  place  in 
the  ward. 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  337 

MODE    OP    NOMINATION 

The  nomination  of  candidates  for  the  office  of  councilor  shall  be  con- 
ducted in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  Part  II.  of  the  third  schedule. 
The  rules  of  Part  II.  of  the  third  schedule  are  as  follows: 

(1)  Every  candidate  for  the  office  of  councilor  must  be  nominated  in 
writing. 

(2)  The  writing  must  be  subscribed  by  two  burgesses  of  the  borough,  or,  in 
the  case  of  a  ward  election,  of  the  ward,  as  proposer  and  seconder,  and  by 
eight  other  burgesses  of  the  borough  or  ward,  as  assenting  to  the  nomination. 

(3)  Each  candidate  must  be  nominated  by  a  separate  nomination  paper, 
but  the  same  burgess,  or  any  of  them,  may  subscribe  as  many  nomination 
papers  as  there  are  vacancies  to  be  filled,  but  no  more. 

(4)  Each  person  nominated  must  be  enrolled  in  the  burgess  roll  or  entered 
in  the  separate  non-resident  list  required  by  this  act  to  be  made. 

(5)  The  nomination  paper  must  state  the  surname  and  other  names  of  the 
candidate,  with  his  abode  and  description. 

(6)  The  town  clerk  shall  provide  nomination  papers,  and  shall  supply  any 
burgess  with  as  many  nomination  papers  as  may  be  required,  and  shall,  at 
the  request  of  any  burgess,  fill  up  a  nomination  paper. 

(7)  Every  nomination  paper  subscribed  as  aforesaid  must  be  delivered  by 
the  candidate,  or  his  proposer  or  seconder,  at  the  town  clerk's  office,  seven 
days  at  least  before  the  day  of  election,  and  before  five  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon of  the  last  day  for  delivery  of  nomination  papers. 

(8)  The  town  clerk  shall  forthwith  send  notice  of  every  such  nomination 
to  each  candidate. 

(9)  The  mayor  shall  attend  at  the  town  hall  on  the  next  day  after  the  last 
day  for  delivery  of  nomination  papers  for  a  sufficient  time,  between  the 
hours  of  two  and  four  in  the  afternoon,  and  shall  decide  on  the  validity  of 
every  objection  made  in  writing  to  a  nomination  paper. 

(10)  Where  a  person  subscribes  more  nomination  papers  than  one,  his 
subscription  shall  be  inoperative  in  all  but  the  one  which  is  first  delivered. 

(11)  Each  candidate  may,  by  writing  signed  by  him,  or,  if  he  is  absent 
from  the  United  Kingdom,  then  his  proposer  or  seconder  may,  by  writing 
signed  by  him,  appoint  a  person  (in  the  schedule  referred  to  as  the  candi- 
date's representative)  to  attend  the  proceedings  before  the  mayor  on  be- 
half ^>f  the  candidate,  and  this  appointment  must  be  delivered  to  the  town 
clerk  before  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  last  day  for  delivery  of 
nomination  papers. 

(12)  Each  candidate  and  his  representative,  but  no  other  person,  except 
for  the  purpose  of  assisting  the  mayor,  shall  be  entitled  to  attend  the  pro- 
ceedings before  the  mayor. 

(13)  Each  candidate  and  his  representative  may,  during  the  time  ap- 
pointed for  the  attendance  of  the  mayor  for  the  purposes  of  this  schedule, 
object  to  the  nomination  paper  of  any  other  candidate  for  the  borough  or 
ward. 

I.— 22 


338          MUNICIPAL  GOVEENMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

(14)  The  decision  of  the  mayor  shall  be  given  in  writing,  and  shall,  if 
disallowing  an  objection,  be  final;  but,  if  allowing  an  objection,  shall  be 
subject  to  a  reversal  on  petition  questioning  the  election  or  return. 

(15)  The  town  clerk  shall,  at  least  four  days  before  the  day  of  election, 
cause  the  surnames  and  other  names  of  all  persons  validly  nominated,  with 
their  respective  abodes  and  descriptions,  and  the  names  of  the  persons  sub- 
scribing their  nomination  papers  as  proposers  and  seconders,  to  be  printed 
and  fixed  on  the  town  hall,  and  in  the  case  of  a  ward  election,  in  some  con- 
spicuous place  in  the  ward. 

(16)  The  nomination  of  a  person  absent  from  the  United  Kingdom  shall 
be  void,  unless  his  written  consent  given  within  one  month  before  the  day 
of  his  nomination  in  the  presence  of  two  witnesses  is  produced  at  the  time 
of  his  nomination. 

(17)  Where  the  number  of  valid  nominations  exceeds  that  of  the  vacan- 
cies, any  candidate  may  withdraw  from  his  candidature  by  notice  signed 
by  him,  and  delivered  at  the  town  clerk's  ofhce  not  later  than  two  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  of  the  day  next  after  the  last  day  of  delivery  of  nomina- 
tion papers.    Provided,  that  such  notices  shall  take  effect  in  the  order  in 
which  they  are  delivered,  and  that  no  such  notice  shall  have  effect  so  as  to 
reduce  the  number  of  candidates  ultimately  standing  nominated  below  the 
number  of  vacancies. 

(18)  In  and  for  the  purposes  of  the  provisions  of  this  act  relating  to  pro- 
ceedings preliminary  to  election,  the  burgess  roll  or  ward  roll  which  will  be 
in  force  on  the  day  of  election  shall  be  deemed  to  be  the  burgess  roll  or 
ward  roll,  and  a  person  whose  name  is  inserted  in  one  of  the  lists  from 
which  the  burgess  roll  or  ward  roll  will  be  made  up,  shall  be  deemed  to  be 
enrolled  in  that  roll  although  that  roll  is  not  yet  completed. 

CONDUCT    OP    ELECTION 

If  the  number  of  valid  nominations  exceeds  that  of  the  vacancies,  the 
councilors  shall  be  elected  from  among  the  persons  nominated. 

If  the  number  of  valid  nominations  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  vacancies, 
the  persons  nominated  shall  be  deemed  to  be  elected. 

If  the  number  of  valid  nominations  is  less  than  that  of  the  vacancies,  the 
persons  nominated  shall  be  deemed  to  be  elected,  and  such  of  the  retiring 
councilors  for  the  borough  or  ward  as  were  highest  on  the  poll  at  their 
election,  or,  if  the  poll  was  equal  or  there  was  no  poll,  as  are  selected  for 
that  purpose  by  the  mayor,  shall  be  deemed  to  be  reflected  to  make  up  the 
required  number. 

If  there  is  no  valid  nomination,  the  retiring  councilors  shall  be  deemed 
to  be  reflected. 

If  an  election  of  councilors  is  not  contested,  the  returning  officer  shall 
publish  a  list  of  the  persons  elected  not  later  than  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
morning  on  the  day  of  election. 

If  an  election  of  councilors  is  contested,  the  poll  shall,  as  far  as  circum- 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  339 

stances  admit,  be  conducted  as  the  poll  at  a  contested  parliamentary  elec- 
tion is,  by  the  Ballot  Act,  1872,  directed  to  be  conducted,  and  subject  to 
the  modifications  expressed  in  Part  in.  of  the  third  schedule,  and  to  the 
other  provisions  of  this  act,  the  provisions  of  the  Ballot  Act,  1872,  relating 
to  a  poll  at  a  parliamentary  election  (including  the  provisions  relating  to 
the  duties  of  the  returning  officer  after  the  close  of  the  poll)  shall  apply  to 
a  poll  at  an  election  of  councilors. 

Every  person  entitled  to  vote  may  vote  for  any  number  of  candidates  not 
exceeding  the  number  of  vacancies. 

The  poll  shall  commence  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  and  close  at 
eight  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day. 

But  if  one  hour  elapses  during  which  no  vote  is  tendered,  and  the  return- 
ing officer  has  not  received  notice  that  any  person  has  within  that  hour 
been  prevented  from  coming  to  the  poll  by  any  riot,  violence,  or  other  un- 
lawful means,  the  returning  officer  may,  if  he  thinks  fit,  close  the  poll  at 
any  time  before  eight  o'clock. 

Where  an  equality  of  votes  is  found  to  exist  between  any  candidates,  and 
the  addition  of  a  vote  would  entitle  any  of  those  candidates  to  be  declared 
elected,  the  returning  officer,  whether  entitled  or  not  to  vote  in  the  first  in- 
stance, may  give  such  additional  vote  by  word  of  mouth  or  in  writing. 

Nothing  in  the  Ballot  Act,  1872,  as  applied  by  this  act,  shall  be  deemed 
to  authorize  the  appointment  of  any  agents  of  a  candidate  at  a  municipal 
election ;  but  if,  in  the  case  of  a  municipal  election,  an  agent  of  a  candi- 
date is  appointed,  and  notice  in  writing  of  the  appointment  is  given  to  the 
returning  officer,  one  clear  day  before  the  polling  day,  then  the  provisions 
of  the  Ballot  Act,  1872,  with  respect  to  agents  of  candidates,  shall,  as  far 
as  regards  that  agent,  apply  in  the  case  of  the  election. 


CHALLENGING    VOTERS 

At  an  election  of  councilors,  the  presiding  officer  shall,  if  required  by 
two  burgesses,  or  by  a  candidate  or  his  agent,  put  to  any  person  offering 
to  vote,  at  the  time  of  presenting  himself  to  vote,  but  not  afterward,  the 
following  questions,  or  either  of  them : 

(a)  Are  you  the  person  enrolled  in  the  burgess  (or  ward)  roll  now  in 
force  for  this  borough  (or  ward)  as  follows  (read  the  whole  entry  from  the 
roll)  f 

(6)  Have  you  already  voted  at  the  present  election  (add,  in  case  of  an 
election  for  several  wards,  In  this  or  any  other  ward)  ? 

The  vote  of  a  person  required  to  answer  either  of  these  questions  shall 
not  be  received  until  he  has  answered  it. 

If  any  person  wilfully  makes  a  false  answer  thereto  he  shall  be  guilty  of 
a  misdemeanor. 

Save  as  by  this  act  authorized,  no  inquiry  shall  be  permitted  at  an  elec- 
tion as  to  the  right  of  any  person  to  vote. 


340          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

ELECTION    OP   ALDERMEN 

The  ordinary  day  of  election  of  aldermen  shall  be  the  ninth  of  Novem- 
ber, and  the  election  shall  be  held  at  the  quarterly  meeting  of  the  council. 

The  election  shall  be  held  immediately  after  the  election  of  the  mayor, 
or,  if  there  is  a  sheriff,  the  appointment  of  the  sheriff. 

An  outgoing  alderman,  although  mayor  elect,  shall  not  vote. 

Every  person  entitled  to  vote  may  vote  for  any  number  of  persons  not 
exceeding  the  number  of  vacancies,  by  signing  and  personally  delivering  at 
the  meeting  to  the  chairman  a  voting  paper  containing  the  surnames  and 
other  names  and  places  of  abode  and  descriptions  of  the  persons  for  whom 
he  votes. 

The  chairman,  as  soon  as  all  the  voting  papers  have  been  delivered  to 
him,  shall  openly  produce  and  read  them,  or  cause  them  to  be  read,  and 
then  deliver  them  to  the  town  clerk  to  be  kept  for  twelve  months. 

In  case  of  equality  of  votes,  the  chairman,  although  as  an  outgoing  alder- 
man or  otherwise  not  entitled  to  vote  in  the  first  instance,  shall  have  the 
casting  vote. 

The  persons,  not  exceeding  the  number  of  vacancies,  who  have  the 
greatest  number  of  votes,  shall  be  declared  by  the  chairman  to  be,  and 
thereupon  shall  be,  elected. 


ELECTION    OP    MAYOR 

The  ordinary  day  of  election  of  mayor  shall  be  the  ninth  of  November. 

The  election  of  mayor  shall  be  the  first  business  transacted  at  the  quar- 
terly meeting  of  the  council  on  the  day  of  election. 

An  outgoing  alderman  may  vote,  although  the  person  for  whom  he  votes 
is  an  alderman. 

In  case  of  equality  of  votes,  the  chairman,  although  not  entitled  to  vote 
in  the  first  instance,  shall  have  the  casting  vote. 


ELECTION    OP    AUDITORS 

The  ordinary  day  of  election  of  elective  auditors  shall  be  the  first  of 
March,  or  such  other  day  as  the  council,  with  the  approval  of  the  Local  Gov- 
ernment Board,  from  time  to  time  appoint. 

The  ordinary  day  of  election  of  revising  assessors  shall  be  the  first  of  March. 

An  elector  shall  not  vote  for  more  than  one  person  to  be  elective  auditor 
or  revising  assessor. 

Elections  of  elective  auditors  and  of  revising  assessors  shall  be  held  at 
the  town  hall,  or  some  one  other  convenient  place  appointed  by  the  mayor. 

Save  as  in  this  section  provided,  all  the  provisions  of  this  act  with  re- 
spect to  the  nomination  and  election  of  councilors  for  a  borough  not  having 
wards  shall  apply  to  the  nomination  and  election  of  elective  auditors  and 
revising  assessors. 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  341 

WOMEN    ELECTORS,   AND    VARIOUS    PROVISIONS 

For  all  purposes  connected  with  and  having  reference  to  the  right  to  vote 
at  municipal  elections,  words  in  this  act  importing  the  masculine  gender  in- 
clude women. 

The  council  may  divide  the  borough  or  any  ward  into  polling  districts, 
and  thereupon  the  overseers  shall,  as  far  as  practicable,  make  out  the  parish 
burgess  lists  so  as  to  divide  the  names  in  conformity  with  the  polling  districts. 

Any  notice  required  to  be  given  in  connection  with  a  municipal  election 
may,  as  to  elective  auditors  and  revising  assessors,  be  comprised  in  one 
notice,  and  may,  as  to  ward  elections,  comprise  matter  necessary  for  sev- 
eral wards. 

On  a  casual  vacancy  in  a  corporate  office,  the  election  shall  be  held  within 
fourteen  days  after  notice  in  writing  of  the  vacancy  has  been  given  to  the 
mayor  or  town  clerk  by  two  burgesses. 

Where  the  office  vacant  is  that  of  mayor,  the  notice  of  the  meeting  for  the 
election  shall  be  signed  by  the  town  clerk. 

In  other  cases  the  day  of  election  shall  be  fixed  by  the  mayor. 

If  the  mayor  is  dead,  or  is  absent  or  otherwise  incapable  of  acting  in  the 
execution  of  his  powers  and  duties  as  to  elections  under  this  act,  the  coun- 
cil shall  forthwith  choose  an  alderman  to  execute  those  powers  and  duties  in 
the  place  of  the  mayor. 

In  case  of  the  illness,  absence,  or  incapacity  to  act  of  the  alderman  as- 
signed to  be  returning  officer  at  a  ward  election,  the  mayor  may  appoint  to  act 
in  his  stead  another  alderman,  or,  if  the  number  of  aldermen  does  not  ex- 
ceed the  number  of  wards,  a  councilor  not  being  a  councilor  for  that  ward, 
and  not  being  enrolled  in  the  ward  roll  for  that  ward. 

If  a  person  is  elected  councilor  in  more  than  one  ward,  he  shall,  within 
three  days  after  notice  thereof,  choose,  by  writing  signed  by  him  and  de- 
livered to  the  town  clerk,  or  in  his  default  the  mayor  shall,  within  three 
days  after  the  time  for  choice  has  expired,  declare  for  which  of  those  wards 
he  shall  serve,  and  the  choice  or  declaration  shall  be  conclusive. 

A  municipal  election  shall  not  be  held  in  any  church,  chapel,  or  other 
place  of  public  worship. 

If  a  municipal  election  is  not  held  on  the  appointed  day  or  within  the 
appointed  time,  it  may  be  held  on  the  day  next  after  that  day  or  the  expira- 
tion of  that  time. 

If  a  municipal  election  is  not  held  on  the  appointed  day,  or  within  the 
appointed  time,  or  on  the  day  next  after  that  day  or  the  expiration  of  that 
time,  or  becomes  void,  the  municipal  corporation  shall  not  thereby  be  dis- 
solved or  be  disabled  from  electing,  but  the  High  Court  may,  on  motion, 
grant  a  mandamus  for  the  election  to  be  held  on  a  day  appointed  by  the 
court. 

Thereupon  public  notice  of  the  election  shall,  by  such  person  as  the  court 
directs,  be  fixed  on  the  town  hall,  and  shall  be  kept  so  fixed  for  at  least  six 
days  before  the  day  appointed  for  the  election ;  and  in  all  other  respects 
I — 22* 


342          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

the  election  shall  be  conducted  as  directed  by  this  act  respecting  ordinary 
elections. 

If  a  parish  burgess  list  is  not  made  or  revised  in  due  time,  the  correspond- 
ing part  of  the  burgess  roll  in  operation  before  the  time  appointed  for  the 
revision  shall  be  the  parish  burgess  list  until  a  burgess  list  for  the  parish 
has  been  revised  and  become  part  of  the  burgess  roll. 

If  any  person  forges  or  fraudulently  defaces  or  fraudulently  destroys  any 
nomination  paper,  or  delivers  to  the  town  clerk  any  forged  nomination  paper, 
knowing  it  to  be  forged,  he  shall  be  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  shall  be 
liable  to  imprisonment  for  any  term  not  exceeding  six  months,  with  or  with- 
out hard  labor. 

An  attempt  to  commit  any  such  offense  shall  be  punishable  as  the  offense 
is  punishable. 

If  a  mayor  or  revising  assessor  neglects  or  refuses  to  revise  a  parish  bur- 
gess list,  or  a  mayor  or  alderman  neglects  or  refuses  to  conduct  or  declare 
an  election,  as  required  by  this  act,  he  shall  for  every  such  offense  be  liable 
to  a  fine  not  exceeding  one  hundred  pounds,  recoverable  by  action. 

If— 

(a)  An  overseer  neglects  or  refuses  to  make,  sign,  or  deliver  a  parish 
burgess  list,  as  required  by  this  act ;  or 

(6)  A  town  clerk  neglects  or  refuses  to  receive,  print,  and  publish  a  parish 
burgess  list  or  list  of  claimants  or  respondents,  as  required  by  this  act ;  or 

(c)  An  overseer  or  town  clerk  refuses  to  allow  any  such  list  to  be  inspected 
by  a  person  having  a  right  thereto  ;  he  shall  for  every  such  neglect  or  re- 
fusal be  liable  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  fifty  pounds,  recoverable  by  action. 

An  action  under  this  section  shall  not  lie  after  three  months  from  the 
neglect  or  refusal.  A  moiety  of  any  fine  recovered  therein  shall,  after  pay- 
ment of  the  costs  of  action,  be  paid  to  the  plaintiff. 

CORRUPT    PRACTICES 

In  this  part  — 

"Bribery,"  "treating,"  "undue  influence,"  and  "personation"  include 
respectively  anything  done  before,  at,  after,  or  with  respect  to  a  municipal 
election,  which,  if  done  before,  at,  after  or  with  respect  to  a  parliamentary 
election,  would  make  the  person  doing  the  same  liable  to  any  penalty,  pun- 
ishment, or  disqualification  for  bribery,  treating,  undue  influence,  or  per- 
sonation, as  the  case  may  be,  under  any  act  for  the  time  being  in  force 
with  respect  to  parliamentary  elections. 

"Corrupt  practice"  means  bribery,  treating,  undue  influence,  or  per- 
sonation. 

"  Candidate"  means  a  person  elected,  or  having  been  nominated,  or  having 
declared  himself  a  candidate  for  election,  to  a  corporate  office. 

"  Canvasser  "  means  any  person  who  solicits  or  persuades,  or  attempts  to 
persuade,  any  person  to  vote  or  abstain  from  voting  at  a  municipal  election, 
or  to  vote  or  abstain  from  voting  for  a  candidate  at  a  municipal  election. 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  343 

"Voter"  means  a  burgess  or  a  person  who  votes,  or  claims  to  vote,  at  a 
municipal  election. 

Any  person  guilty  of  a  corrupt  practice  at  a  municipal  election  shall  be 
liable  to  the  like  actions,  prosecutions,  penalties,  forfeitures,  and  punish- 
ishments,  as  if  the  corrupt  practice  had  been  committed  at  a  parliamentary 
election. 

Where  it  is  found  by  the  report  of  an  election  court  that  a  corrupt  prac- 
tice has  been  committed  by  or  with  the  knowledge  and  consent  of  a  candi- 
date at  a  municipal  election,  that  candidate  shall  be  deemed  to  have  been 
personally  guilty  of  a  corrupt  practice  at  the  election,  and  his  election,  if 
he  has  been  elected,  shall  be  void;  and  he  shall  (whether  elected  or  not) 
during  seven  years  from  the  date  of  the  report  be  subject  to  the  following 
disqualifications : 

He  shall  be  incapable  of  — 

(a)  Holding  or  exercising  any  corporate  office  or  municipal  franchise,  or 
being  enrolled  or  voting  as  a  burgess. 

(6)  Acting  as  a  justice  or  holding  any  judicial  office. 

(c)  Being  elected  to  or  sitting  or  voting  in  Parliament. 

(d)  Being  registered  or  voting  as  a  parliamentary  voter. 

(e)  Being  employed  by  a  candidate  in  a  parliamentary  or  municipal 
election. 

(/)  Acting  as  overseer  or  as  guardian  of  the  poor. 

If  any  person  is  on  indictment  or  information  found  guilty  of  a  corrupt 
practice  at  a  municipal  election,  or  is  in  any  action  or  proceeding  adjudged 
to  pay  a  penalty  or  forfeiture  for  a  corrupt  practice  at  a  municipal  election, 
he  shall,  whether  he  was  a  candidate  at  the  election  or  not,  be  subject  during 
seven  years  from  the  date  of  the  conviction,  or  judgment,  to  all  the  disquali- 
fica'ions  mentioned  in  this  section. 

If,  after  a  person  has  become  disqualified  under  this  part,  any  witness  on 
whose  testimony  he  has  become  disqualified  is,  on  his  prosecution,  convicted 
of  perjury  in  respect  of  that  testimony,  the  High  Court  may,  on  motion,  and 
on  proof  that  the  disqualification  was  procured  by  means  of  that  perjury, 
order  that  the  disqualification  shall  cease. 

If  it  is  found  by  an  election  court  that  a  candidate  has  by  an  agent  been 
guilty  of  a  corrupt  practice  at  a  municipal  election,  or  that  any  offense 
against  this  part  has  been  committed  at  a  municipal  election  by  a  candidate, 
or  by  an  agent  for  a  candidate  with  the  candidate's  knowledge  and  consent, 
the  candidate  shall  during  the  period  for  which  he  was  elected  to  serve,  or 
for  which,  if  elected,  he  might  have  served,  be  disqualified  for  being  elected 
to  and  for  holding  any  corporate  office  in  the  borough,  and  if  he  was  elected 
his  election  shall  be  void. 

A  municipal  election  shall  be  wholly  voided  by  such  general  corruption, 
bribery,  treating  or  intimidation,  at  the  election  as  would  by  the  common  law 
of  Parliament  void  a  parliamentary  election. 

A  burgess  of  a  borough  shall  not  be  retained  or  employed  for  payment 
of  reward  by  or  on  behalf  of  a  candidate  at  a  municipal  election  for 


344          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

that  borough  or  any  ward  thereof  as  a  canvasser  for  the  purposes  of  the 
election. 

If  any  person  is  retained  or  employed  in  contravention  of  this  prohibition, 
that  person  and  also  the  person  by  whom  he  is  retained  or  employed  shall 
be  guilty  of  an  offense  against  this  part,  and  shall  be  liable  on  summary 
conviction  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  ten  pounds. 

An  agent  or  canvasser  retained  or  employed  for  payment  or  reward  for 
any  of  the  purposes  of  a  municipal  election  shall  not  vote  at  the  election, 
and  if  he  votes  he  shall  be  guilty  of  an  offense  against  this  part,  and  shall  be 
liable  on  summary  conviction  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  ten  pounds. 

If  a  candidate  or  an  agent  for  a  candidate  pays  or  agrees  to  pay  any  money 
on  account  of  the  conveyance  of  a  voter  to  or  from  the  poll,  he  shall  be  guilty 
of  an  offense  against  this  part,  and  shall  be  liable  on  summary  conviction  to 
a  fine  not  exceeding  five  pounds. 

The  costs  and  expenses  of  a  prosecutor  and  his  witnesses  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  any  person  for  bribery,  undue  influence,  or  personation  at  a  muni- 
cipal election,  with  compensation  for  trouble  and  loss  of  time,  shall,  unless 
the  court  otherwise  directs,  be  allowed,  paid,  and  borne  as  in  cases  of  felony. 

The  clerk  of  the  peace  of  the  borough,  or,  if  there  is  none,  of  the  county 
in  which  the  borough  is  situate,  shall,  if  so  directed  by  an  election  court, 
prosecute  any  person  for  bribery,  undue  influence,  or  personation  at  the 
election  in  respect  of  which  the  court  acts,  or  sue  or  proceed  against  any 
person  for  penalties  for  bribery,  treating,  or  undue  influence,  or  any  offense 
against  this  part  at  the  election. 

The  votes  of  persons  in  respect  of  whom  any  corrupt  practice  is  proved  to 
have  been  committed  at  a  municipal  election  shall  be  struck  off  on  a  scrutiny. 

The  enactments  for  the  time  being  in  force  for  the  detection  of  persona- 
tion and  for  the  apprehension  of  persons  charged  with  personation  at  a  par- 
liamentary election  shall  apply  in  the  case  of  a  municipal  election. 

ELECTION    PETITIONS 

A  municipal  election  may  be  questioned  by  an  election  petition  on  the 
ground — 

(a)  That  the  election  was  as  to  the  borough  or  ward  wholly  voided  by 
general  bribery,  treating,  undue  influence,  or  personation  ;  or 

(6)  That  the  election  was  voided  by  corrupt  practices  or  offenses  against 
this  part  committed  at  the  election ;  or 

(c)  That  the  person  whose  election  is  questioned  was  at  the  time  of  the 
election  disqualified ;  or 

(d)  That  he  was  not  duly  elected  by  a  majority  of  lawful  votes. 

A  municipal  election  shall  not  be  questioned  on  any  of  those  grounds  ex- 
cept by  an  election  petition. 

An  election  petition  may  be  presented  either  by  four  or  more  persons  who 
voted  or  had  a  right  to  vote  at  the  election,  or  by  a  person  alleging  himself 
to  have  been  a  candidate  at  the  election. 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  345 

Any  person  whose  election  is  questioned  by  the  petition,  and  any  return- 
ing officer  of  whose  conduct  a  petition  complains,  may  be  made  a  respondent 
to  the  petition. 

The  petition  shall  be  in  the  prescribed  form,  and  shall  be  signed  by  the 
petitioner,  and  shall  be  presented  in  the  prescribed  manner  to  the  High  Court 
in  the  Queen's  Bench  Division,  and  the  prescribed  officer  shall  send  a  copy 
thereof  to  the  town  clerk,  who  shall  forthwith  publish  it  in  the  borough. 

It  shall  be  presented  within  twenty-one  days  after  the  day  on  which  the 
election  was  held,  except  that  if  it  complains  of  the  election  on  the  ground 
of  corrupt  practices,  and  specifically  alleges  that  a  payment  of  money  or 
other  reward  has  been  made  or  promised  since  the  election  by  a  person 
elected  at  the  election,  or  on  his  account  or  with  his  privity,  in  pursuance 
or  furtherance  of  such  corrupt  practices,  it  may  be  presented  at  any  time 
within  twenty-eight  days  after  the  date  of  the  alleged  payment  or  promise, 
whether  or  not  any  other  petition  against  that  person  has  been  previously 
presented  or  tried. 

At  the  time  of  presenting  an  election  petition,  or  within  three  days  after- 
ward, the  petitioner  shall  give  security  for  all  costs,  charges,  and  expenses 
which  may  become  payable  by  him  to  any  witness  summoned  on  his  behalf, 
or  to  any  respondent. 

The  security  shall  be  to  such  amount,  not  exceeding  five  hundred  pounds, 
as  the  High  Court,  or  a  judge  thereof,  on  summons,  directs,  and  shall  be 
given  in  the  prescribed  manner,  either  by  a  deposit  of  money  or  by  recog- 
nizance entered  into  by  not  more  than  four  sureties,  or  partly  in  one  way 
and  partly  in  the  other. 

Within  five  days  after  the  presentation  of  the  petition  the  petitioner  shall 
in  the  prescribed  manner  serve  on  the  respondent  a  notice  of  the  presenta- 
tion of  the  petition,  and  of  the  nature  of  the  proposed  security,  and  a  copy 
of  the  petition. 

On  the  expiration  of  the  time  limited  for  making  objections,  or,  after  ob- 
jection made,  on  the  objection  being  disallowed  or  removed,  whichever  last 
happens,  the  petition  shall  be  at  issue. 

The  prescribed  officer  shall,  as  soon  as  may  be,  make  a  list,  in  this  act  re- 
ferred to  as  the  municipal  election  list,  of  all  election  petitions  at  issue,  plac- 
ing them  in  the  order  in  which  they  were  presented,  and  shall  keep  at  his 
office  a  copy  of  this  list,  open  to  inspection  in  the  prescribed  manner. 

The  petitions  shall,  as  far  as  conveniently  may  be,  be  tried  in  the  order  in 
which  they  stand  in  the  list. 

An  election  petition  shall  be  tried  by  an  election  court  consisting  of  a  bar- 
rister qualified  and  appointed  as  in  this  section  provided,  without  a  jury. 

A  barrister  shall  not  be  qualified  to  constitute  an  election  court  if  he  is 
of  less  than  fifteen  years'  standing,  or  is  a  member  of  the  Commons  House  of 
Parliament,  or  holds  any  office  or  place  of  profit  under  the  Crown,  other 
than  that  of  recorder. 

A  barrister  shall  not  be  qualified  to  constitute  an  election  court  for  trial 
of  an  election  petition  relating  to  any  borough  for  which  he  is  recorder,  or 


346          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GKEAT  BEITAIN 

in  which  he  resides,  or  which  is  included  in  a  circuit  of  Her  Majesty's  judges 
on  which  he  practises  as  a  barrister. 

An  election  petition  shall  be  tried  in  open  court,  and  notice  of  the  time 
and  place  of  trial  shall  be  given  in  the  prescribed  manner  not  less  than 
seven  days  before  the  day  of  trial. 

(Here  follow  very  elaborate  directions  regarding  procedure  in  trial  of  elec- 
tion petitions.) 

WORKING-MEN'S  DWELLINGS 

If  a  municipal  corporation  determines  to  convert  any  corporate  land  into 
sites  for  working-men's  dwellings,  and  obtains  the  approval  of  the  Treasury 
for  so  doing,  the  corporation  may,  for  that  purpose,  make  grants  or  leases 
for  terms  of  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  years,  or  any  shorter  term,  of 
any  parts  of  the  corporate  land. 

The  corporation  may  make  on  the  land  any  roads,  drains,  walls,  fences, 
or  other  works  requisite  for  converting  the  same  into  building  land,  at  an 
expense  not  exceeding  such  sum  as  the  Treasury  approve.  t 

The  corporation  may  insert  in  any  grant  or  lease  of  any  part  of  the  land 
(in  this  section  referred  to  as  the  site)  provisions  binding  the  grantee  or 
lessee  to  build  thereon  as  in  the  grant  or  lease  prescribed,  and  to  maintain 
and  repair  the  building,  and  prohibiting  the  division  of  the  site  or  building, 
and  any  addition  to  or  alteration  of  the  character  of  the  building,  without 
the  consent  of  the  corporation,  and  for  the  revesting  of  the  site  in  the  corpo- 
ration, or  its  reentry  thereon,  on  breach  of  any  provision  in  the  grant  or 
lease. 

In  this  section  the  term  working-men's  dwellings  means  buildings  suitable 
for  the  habitation  of  persons  employed  in  manual  labor  and  their  families ; 
but  the  use  of  part  of  a  building  for  purposes  of  retail  trade,  or  other  pur- 
poses approved  by  the  council,  shall  not  prevent  the  building  from  being 
deemed  a  dwelling. 

POLICE 

The  council  shall  from  time  to  time  appoint,  for  such  time  as  they  think 
fit,  a  sufficient  number  not  exceeding  one  third  of  their  own  body,  who,  with 
the  mayor,  shall  be  the  watch  committee. 

The  watch  committee  may  act  by  a  majority  of  those  present  at  a  meeting 
thereof,  but  shall  not  act  unless  three  are  so  present. 

The  watch  committee  shall  from  time  to  time  appoint  a  sufficient  number 
of  fit  men  to  be  borough  constables. 

A  borough  constable  shall  be  sworn  in  before  a  justice  having  jurisdiction 
in  the  borough,  and  when  so  sworn  shall,  in  the  borough,  in  the  county  in 
which  the  borough  or  any  part  thereof  is  situate,  and  in  every  county  being 
within  seven  miles  from  any  part  of  the  borough,  and  in  all  liberties  in  any 
such  county,  have  all  such  powers  and  privileges,  and  be  liable  to  such 
duties  and  responsibilities,  as  any  constable  has  and  is  liable  to  for  the 
time  being  in  his  constablewick,  at  common  law  or  by  statute,  and  shall 


APPENDIX  I.— THE  MUNICIPAL  CODE  347 

obey  all  such  lawful  commands  as  he  receives  from  any  justice  having  juris- 
diction in  the  borough  or  in  any  county  in  which  the  constable  is  called  on 
to  act. 

The  watch  committee  may  from  time  to  time  frame  such  regulations  as 
they  deem  expedient  for  preventing  neglect  or  abuse,  and  for  making  the 
borough  constables  efficient  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties. 

The  watch  committee,  or  any  two  justices  having  jurisdiction  in  the 
borough,  may  at  any  time  suspend,  and  the  watch  committee  may  at  any 
time  dismiss,  any  borough  constable  whom  they  think  negligent  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duty,  or  otherwise  unfit  for  the  same. 

When  a  borough  constable  is  so  dismissed,  or  ceases  to  belong  to  the  con- 
stabulary force  of  the  borough,  all  powers  vested  in  him  as  a  constable  by 
this  act  shall  immediately  cease. 

The  watch  committee  shall,  on  the  first  of  January,  the  first  of  April,  the 
first  of  July,  and  the  first  of  October  in  every  year,  send  to  the  secretary  of 
state  a  copy  of  all  rules  from  time  to  time,  made  by  the  watch  committee  or 
the  council  for  the  regulation  and  guidance  of  the  borough  constables. 

A  borough  constable  may,  while  on  duty,  apprehend  any  idle  and  disorderly 
person  whom  he  finds  disturbing  the  public  peace,  or  whom  he  has  just  cause 
to  suspect  of  intention  to  commit  a  felony,  and  deliver  him  into  the  custody 
of  the  borough  constable  in  attendance  at  the  nearest  watch-house,  in  order 
that  he  may  either  be  secured  until  he  can  be  brought  before  a  justice,  or 
where  the  constable  in  attendance  is  empowered  and  thinks  fit  to  give  bail 
for  his  appearance  before  a  justice. 

If  a  borough  constable  is  guilty  of  neglect  of  duty,  or  of  disobedience  to  a 
lawful  order,  he  shall,  for  every  such  offense,  be  liable  on  summary  conviction 
to  imprisonment  for  any  time  not  exceeding  ten  days,  or,  in  the  discretion 
of  the  court,  to  a  fine  not  exceeding  forty  shillings,  or  to  be  dismissed  from 
his  office. 

GRANT  OP  CHARTERS 

If  on  the  petition  to  the  Queen  of  the  inhabitant  householders  of  any  town 
or  towns  or  district  in  England,  or  of  any  of  those  inhabitants,  praying  for 
the  grant  of  a  charter  of  incorporation,  Her  Majesty,  by  the  advice  of  her 
Privy  Council,  thinks  fit  by  charter  to  create  such  town,  towns,  or  district, 
or  any  part  thereof  specified  in  the  charter,  with  or  without  any  adjoining 
place,  a  municipal  borough,  and  to  incorporate  the  inhabitants  thereof,  it 
shall  be  lawful  for  Her  Majesty  by  the  charter  to  extend  to  that  municipal 
borough  and  the  inhabitants  thereof  so  incorporated  the  provisions  of  the 
Municipal  Corporations  Acts. 

Every  petition  for  a  charter  under  this  act  shall  be  referred  to  a  committee 
of  the  Lords  of  Her  Majesty's  Privy  Council  (in  this  part  called  the  Com- 
mittee of  Council). 

One  month  at  least  before  the  petition  is  taken  into  consideration  by  the 
Committee  of  Council,  notice  thereof  and  of  the  time  when  it  will  be  so  taken 
into  consideration  shall  be  published  in  the  "  London  Gazette,"  and  other- 


348          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

•wise  in  such  manner  as  the  committee  direct  for  the  purpose  of  making  it 
known  to  all  persons  interested. 

Where  Her  Majesty  by  a  charter  extends  the  Municipal  Corporation  Acts 
to  a  municipal  borough  it  shall  be  lawful  for  Her  Majesty,  by  the  charter,  to 
do  all  or  any  of  the  following  things : 

(a)  To  fix  the  number  of  councilors  and  to  fix  the  number  and  boundaries 
of  the  wards  (if  any),  and  to  assign  the  number  of  councilors  to  each  ward ; 
and 

(&)  To  fix  the  years,  days,  and  times  for  the  retirement  of  the  first  aldermen 
and  councilors ;  and 

(c)  To  fix  such  days,  times,  and  places,  and  nominate  such  persons  to  per- 
form such  duties,  and  make  such  other  temporary  modifications  of  the  Muni- 
cipal Corporations  Acts,  as  may  appear  to  Her  Majesty  to  be  necessary  or 
proper  for  making  those  acts  applicable  in  the  case  of  the  first  constitution 
of  a  municipal  borough. 

A  scheme  shall,  before  being  settled  by  the  Committee  of  Council,  be  re- 
ferred for  consideration  to  the  secretary  of  state  and  the  Local  Govern- 
ment Board,  and,  if  and  so  far  as  it  is  intended  to  affect  any  authority  which 
is  a  harbor  authority  within  the  meaning  of  the  Harbors  and  Passing  Tolls, 
etc.,  Act,  1861,  to  the  Board  of  Trade. 

A  scheme  shall  in  every  case  provide  for  placing  the  new  borough  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  council  as  the  sanitary  authority. 

If  the  Committee  of  Council  are  satisfied  that  a  local  authority  or  other 
petitioners  have  properly  promoted  or  properly  opposed  a  scheme  before 
them,  and  that  for  special  reasons  it  is  right  that  the  reasonable  costs  in- 
curred by  the  authority  or  other  petitioners  in  such  promotion  or  opposition 
should  be  paid  as  expenses  properly  incurred  by  the  local  authority  in  the 
execution  of  their  duties,  the  Committee  of  Council  may  order  those  costs  to 
be  so  paid,  and  they  shall  be  paid  accordingly. 

A  charter  creating  a  municipal  borough  which  purports  to  be  granted  in 
pursuance  of  the  royal  prerogative,  and  in  pursuance  of  or  in  accordance 
with  this  act,  shall  after  acceptance  be  deemed  to  be  valid  and  within  the 
powers  of  this  act  and  Her  Majesty's  prerogative,  and  shall  not  be  questioned 
in  any  legal  proceeding  whatever. 

Every  such  charter  shall  be  laid  before  both  houses  of  Parliament  within 
one  month  after  it  is  granted,  if  Parliament  is  then  sitting,  or  if  not,  within 
one  month  after  the  beginning  of  the  then  next  sitting  of  Parliament. 


APPENDIX  II 


THE  LONDON  (PROGRESSIVE)   PLATFORM 

(ADOPTED  BY  THE   LONDON  LIBERAL 
AND  RADICAL  UNION,  IN  1892) 

A  STATEMENT  OP  A  PROGRESSIVE  POLICY  FOR  THE  LONDON  COUNTY 
COUNCIL  MAY  BE  DIVIDED  INTO  THREE   SECTIONS: 

(a)  DEMANDS  FOR  NECESSARY  POWERS. 
(6)  DECLARATIONS  OF  MUNICIPAL  POLICY. 

(c)  DEFINITE  PLEDGES  OF  JUSTICE,  ECONOMY,  AND  UTILITY  IN  AD- 
MINISTRATION. 

rilHE  aim  of  the  Progressive  party  in  London  should  continue  to  be  so  to 
J-  secure  the  administration  of  the  limited  powers  of  government  which 
have  been  conceded  to  London  as  to  give  every  Londoner  the  best  advantage 
possible  out  of  the  public  services  ;  to  compel  public  attention  to  the  unjust 
limitation  of  the  powers  of  self-government  in  London,  and  to  the  unjust 
way  in  which  the  revenue  is  now  raised;  and  to  resist  additions  to  the 
county  council  rate  wherever  possible  until  Parliament  has  provided  that 
the  right  people  should  bear  it. 

Their  policy  is  at  once  a  ratepayer's  policy,  for  it  is  directed  entirely  to 
relieve  the  occupiers  of  their  unjust  burden,  and  to  check  its  increase  in 
the  mean  time  ;  and  a  people's  policy,  for  it  is  directed  to  making  London 
a  better  place  to  live  in  for  every  section  of  its  population. 

Many  of  the  succeeding  paragraphs  rather  express  what  has  been  done 
and  is  being  aimed  at  by  the  present  London  county  council  than  contain 
any  new  proposals ;  and  the  London  Liberal  and  Radical  Union  desire  to 
express  their  recognition  of  the  great  work  which  the  London  county  coun- 
cil has  accomplished  even  within  the  limited  powers  already  at  its  disposal. 

(a)  THE  DEMANDS  FOR  NECESSARY  POWERS  COMPRISE  THE  FOLLOWING: 

1.  That  the  Local  Government  Act,  1888,  should  be  amended  by  conced- 
ing to  London  all  the  powers  of  municipal  government  now  enjoyed  by  any 
of  the  cities  of  Great  Britain. 

2.  That  the  London  county  council  should  have  full  powers  to  hold  in- 
quiries and  to  promote  bills  for  all  purposes  of  water-supply,  gas-supply, 
electric  lighting,  docks,  markets,  tramways,  subways,  burial-grounds,  and 
for  all  purposes  relating  to  the  river  Thames  within  its  jurisdiction. 

349 


350          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

3.  That  the  London  county  council  should  have  full  powers  to  promote 
such  bills  as  may  be  necessary  from  time  to  time  for  the  amendment  of  the 
Metropolis  Management  Act,  the  Metropolitan  Police  Acts,  Buildings  Acts, 
Rating  and  Assessment  Acts,  and  generally  as  to  metropolitan  government 
and  finance.  . 

4.  That  the  London  county  council  should  obtain  the  control  of  the  police. 

5.  That  all  doubts  and  restrictions  as  to  the  council's  powers  of  purchas- 
ing and  working  tramways  be  cleared  away. 

6.  That  the  London  county  council  should  obtain  a  central  control  of 
assessment  and  valuation,  a  central  registration  office,  a  labor  bureau,  and 
a  London  statistical  department  (none  of  which  yet  exist). 

7.  That  the  London  county  council,  instead  of  the  police,  should  become 
the  licensing  authority  for  stage  and  hackney  carriages,  their  conductors 
and  drivers,  hawkers  and  peddlers,  and  lodging-houses. 

8.  That  a  district  councils  bill  should  be  passed  (in  accordance  with  the 
report  on  district  councils  accepted  by  the  council  of  this  Union),  and  that 
it  should  provide  that  the  London  county  council  shall  have  the  necessary 
powers  of  central  control. 

9.  That  the  London  county  council  should  have  power  to  take  over  the 
duties  of  the  burial  boards. 

10.  That  the  London  county  council  should  have  further  control  over 
London  charities. 

11.  That  the  London  county  council  should  be  authorized  to  keep  a  re- 
gister of  all  owners,  both  freeholders  and  leaseholders,  of  land  and  build- 
ings in  the  metropolis,  and  that  such  owners  be  required  to  register  therein. 


(6)  THE  POINTS  OF  A  PROGRESSIVE  MUNICIPAL  POLICY  INCLUDE: 
I. —  CONTROL  OP  CERTAIN  GREAT  CORPORATE  UNDERTAKINGS 

1.  The  municipal! zation  of  the  water-supply:  to  be  obtained  by  the  crea- 
tion of  a  statutory  water  committee  of  the  London  county  council,  elected 
yearly,  with  power  either  to  introduce  an  alternative  or  additional  supply 
or  to  take  over  the  existing  undertakings  at  a  price  corresponding  to  their 
depreciated  utility. 

The  council  ought  also  to  have  the  power  to  forbid  the  taking  of  water 
for  London  drinking  purposes  from  tainted  reaches  of  the  Thames  or  Lea, 
to  compel  the  restoration  of  proper  compensation  water  to  these  rivers 
where  (as  with  the  Lea)  there  is  not  left  sufficient  flow  to  carry  off  the  foul 
matter,  and  to  veto  the  taking  in  any  case  of  more  than  a  reasonable  pro- 
portion of  the  total  flow  of  either  river  (as  noted  by  the  royal  commission). 

2.  The  control  of  the  gas-supply:  to  be  obtained  by  the  regulation  of  the 
quality  and  price  of  gas  on  a  basis  more  efficient  than  the  present  system, 
and  by  the  creation  of  a  similar  statutory  committee  with  power  either  to 
provide  a  municipal  supply  or  to  take  over  the  companies  on  terms  fair  to 
the  ratepayers. 


APPENDIX  II.— THE  LONDON  (PROGRESSIVE)  PLATFORM  351 

3.  The  control  of  the  markets:   to  be  obtained  by  power  to  enact  by- 
laws to  prevent  such  nuisances  as  constantly  occur  (e.  g.,  at  Covent  Gar- 
den and  Billingsgate),  and  to  compel  the  existing  markets  (so  long  as  they 
continue)  to  provide  efficient  accommodation,  especially  for  food-supply; 
and  by  full  power  to  establish  and  carry  on  public  markets  in  all  parts  of 
London  without  regard  to  existing  monopolies,  and  to  take  over  existing 
markets  where  thought  necessary. 

4.  The  control  of  the  river  and  the  docks:   to  be  obtained  by  by-law 
powers  controlling  all  matters  of  public  concern,  and  by  controlling  or 
superseding  to  that  extent  the  Thames  Conservancy,  with  power  to  the 
county  council  to  create  new  docks  or  to  take  over  existing  ones;  or  to  pro- 
mote a  public  dock  board  for  these  purposes. 

5.  The  control  of  the  tramways:  to  be  obtained  by  such  by-law  regula- 
tions as  exist  in  other  cities  (e.  g.,  in  Edinburgh),  and  by  the  abolition  of 
the  present  limitations  on  the  powers  of  purchase  intended  to  be  given  by 
Parliament. 

As  soon  as  the  London  county  council  can  obtain  possession  of  a  work- 
able line,  it  should  be  worked  upon  the  principles  now  in  successful  opera- 
tion at  Huddersfield. 

6.  The  control  of  all  the  open  spaces  of  London :  by  means  of  regulations 
providing  (e.  g.)  for  their  convenient  use  for  purposes  of  public  meeting, 
pending  the  transfer  to  the  council  of  the  spaces  now  (nominally)  vested  in 
the  Crown,  including  powers  over  London  graveyards. 

In  the  case  of  those  parks  and  open  spaces  already  vested  in  council,  its 
policy  should  be,  as  now,  to  make  them  of  the  utmost  use  for  the  recreation 
of  the  people,  by  making  all  reasonable  arrangements  for  sports,  conve- 
niences, and  refreshments,  and  by  providing  music. 


II. —  PRINCIPLES  OP  MUNICIPAL  ACTION 

1.  That  the  county  council  should  not  only  treat  its  own  workers  fairly, 
but  should  set  a  good  example  to  other  employers  in  respect  of  the  hours  of 
labor,  rate  of  wages,  and  conditions  of  employment  generally. 

2.  That  the  county  council  should  continue  the  policy  it  has  already  ini- 
tiated of  arranging  for  its  employees  a  normal  eight  hours'  day  and  a  six 
days'  week,  and  trade-union  rate  of  wages. 

3.  That  it  should  assist  the  public,  so  far  as  it  can  without  excessive  cost, 
to  make  more  use  of  the  existing  possessions  of  London  by  pressing  for  in- 
creased facilities  at  cheap  rates  on  all  tramways,  subways,  and  railways: 
by  pressing  for  adequate  facilities  as  to  workmen's  trains  ;  by  utilizing  and 
adding  to  the  open  spaces ;  and  by  assisting  to  regulate  the  present  chaotic 
arrangements  as  to  hospital,  infirmary,  dispensing,  and  other  medical  aid. 

4.  That  it  should  defend  the  interests  of  the  public  by  demanding  in  the 
committees  of  Parliament  a  full  equivalent  for  the  public  in  return  for 
monopoly  concessions, — e.  g.,  where  vacant  spaces  or  open  grounds  are  taken 


352          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

for  new  undertakings,  a  proper  equivalent  in  land  should  be  dedicated  to 
public  uses. 

5.  That,  while  acting  in  harmony  with  all  local  bodies,  it  should  watch 
the  common  interests  of  the  whole  community  of  the  metropolis,  specially 
as  to  the  housing  of  the  people,  the  public  health,  and  finance. 

6.  That  the  council  should  make  due  provision  for  the  erection  and  man- 
agement of  municipal  common  lodging-houses,  together  with  power  to 
make  free  night-shelters. 

7.  That  the  council  shall  not  have  power  to  resell  the  freehold  of  any 
land  which  may  come  into  its  possession. 

8.  That  it  shall  uphold,  as  against  the  City,  the  necessity  of  one  govern- 
ment for  London,  and  demand  that  the  county  and  City  should  be  merged  in 
one  municipality  at  the  earliest  practicable  time. 

9.  That  the  council  should  insist  on  the  relief  of  the  ratepayers — 
(a)  By  obtaining  betterment  contributions  to  improvement  schemes. 

(6)  By  charging  a  proper  quota  of  the  annual  London  budget  upon  the 
owners  of  rental  and  ground  values. 

(c)  By  the  creation  of  a  municipal  death  duty. 

(d)  By  the  equalization  of  all  rates  throughout  London. 

(e)  By  the  division  of  rates  between  owner  and  occupier. 

(/)  By  the  appropriation  to  the  proper  public  uses  of  the  metropolis  of 
the  funds  of  the  City  companies  and  charities. 

(g)  By  the  equitable  rating  of  vacant  land,  and  the  collection  of  a  fair 
share  of  the  rates  from  the  owners  of  vacant  houses. 


(c)  DEFINITE  PLEDGES  OF  JUSTICE,  ECONOMY,  AND  UTILITY 
IN  ADMINISTRATION 

1.  That  the  rule  forbidding  contracts  to  be  given  to  any  firm  which  does 
not  pay  the  rate  of  wages  and  observe  the  conditions  of  labor  which  are  ac- 
cepted as  fair  in  their  trade,  shall  be  strictly  upheld. 

2.  That  where  recognized  schedules  of  wages  cannot  be  enforced,  the 
council  shall,  where  possible,  frame  a  schedule  and  annex  it  to  its  con- 
tracts. 

3.  That  sub-contracting  shall  be  rigorously  suppressed. 

4.  That,  so  far  as  practicable,  the  council  shall  employ  its  own  workers 
direct. 

5.  That  while  paying  sufficient  remuneration  to  secure  the  best  skill  in 
the  interests  of  London,  the  council  should  jealously  control  the  increase  of 
large  salaries. 

6.  That  with  a  view  to  provide  for  the  unemployed,  the  council  should 
distribute  the  work  it  would  naturally  undertake  in  such  a  way  that  it  may 
come  in,  as  far  as  possible,  at  times  when  the  demand  for  labor  is  decreas- 
ing; and  should  use  its  influence  and  powers  to  induce  other  local  authori- 
ties to  adopt  a  like  course. 


APPENDIX  II.— THE  LONDON  (PROGRESSIVE)  PLATFORM  353 

7.  That  the  council  should  institute  a  better  system  of  financial  control 
over  the  spending  departments,  in  the  interests  of  economy. 

8.  That  the  council  should  publish  an  annual  budget,  and  forbid  (except 
under  absolute  necessity)  all  extraordinary  estimates. 

9.  That  until  a  more  just  arrangement  can  be  made  as  to  London  rating, 
or  until  the  principle  of  betterment  can  be  enforced,  the  council  should  de- 
cline to  promote  any  costly  schemes  of  metropolitan  improvement  which 
it  is  possible  to  defer. 

10.  That  the  council  should  continue  to  contribute  a  reasonable  amount 
annually  to  the  increase  of  open  spaces  and  the  better  enjoyment  of  those 
which  exist. 

11.  That  the  council  should  use  its  powers  to  provide  greater  facilities 
for  polling  at  elections. 

12.  That  the  council  should  put  in  force  the  regulations  for  tenement- 
houses,  and  should  use  its  best  endeavors  to  compel  the  enforcement  of  the 
sanitary  law  and  the  factory  and  workshop  acts. 

13.  That  the  council  should  make  and  enforce  by-laws  for  the  better  pro- 
tection of  the  public  against  nuisances. 

14.  That  the  council  should  exercise  a  vigilant  watchfulness  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  public  safety  over  theaters  and  places  of  entertainment  and 
public  meeting,  over  neglected  property,  and  over  new  buildings. 

15.  That  the  council  should  insist  on  an  ample  provision  of  light  and  air, 
and  should  discourage  the  overcrowding  of  the  people  in  large  blocks  where 
proper  conditions  are  not  obtained. 

16.  That  (while  discouraging  large  and  costly  schemes  on  the  basis  of 
Cross's  act)  the  council  should  vigorously  enforce  the  housing  acts  against 
the  owners  of  slum  property. 

17.  That  the  county  council  shall  use  its  powers  to  provide  proper  dwell- 
ings, at  rents  sufficient  to  secure  them  from  loss,  in  those  parts  of  the  me- 
tropolis and  suburbs  where  proper  housing  for  the  working  population  has 
been  swept  away  or  does  not  exist. 

18.  That  pending  the  construction  of  the  Blackwall  Tunnel,  the  council 
shall  increase  the  accommodation  for  transit  by  free  ferry  across  the  Thames 
below  bridge. 

19.  That  the  council  should  take  steps  to  procure  the  removal  of  all  gates 
and  bars  which  obstruct  the  London  streets. 

20.  That  the  council  should  make  further  arrangements  for  the  publica- 
tion of  its  reports,  statistics,  etc.,  and  for  the  regular  gratuitous  supply  of 
all  its  publications  to  the  public  libraries  of  London. 

21.  That  the  council  should  support  such  a  reform  of  the  law  as  will  make 
clear  the  right  of  women  to  be  county  councilors. 

22.  That  the  council  should  support  such  a  reform  of  the  law  as  will  pro- 
vide for  the  payment  of  all  members  of  the  council  for  their  services. 


I. -23. 


APPENDIX  III 


THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON 

REPORT  *  OP  THE  ROYAL  COMMISSION  OP  1894,  WHICH  WAS  APPOINTED  TO 

RECOMMEND  A  SCHEME  FOR  THE  COMPLETE  MUNICIPAL  UNITY  OP  THE 

METROPOLIS  THROUGH  THE  AMALGAMATION  OP  THE  OLD  CITY  AND 

THE  COUNTY  OP  LONDON 

THE  act  of  1888,  in  creating  the  London  county  council,  combined  in  that 
body  two  distinct  characters,  and  invested  it  with  two  distinct  classes 
of  duties  and  powers.  It  not  only  constituted  London  outside  the  City  a 
separate  county,  under  a  county  council,  exercising  the  functions  hitherto 
performed  by  the  justices  in  quarter  sessions,  but  also  transferred  to  this 
council  the  powers  and  duties  previously  vested  in  the  Metropolitan  Board 
of  Works,  so  that  the  London  county  council  stands  out  among  other  county 
councils,  as  regards  both  the  extent  and  limitation  of  its  authority.  Over 
the  county  of  London, —  London  outside  the  City, — its  powers  are  very  ex- 
tensive. Where  it  has  no  power  of  direct  administration  itself,  it  controls 
in  various  ways  the  action  of  the  local  authorities,  the  vestries,  and  district 
boards.  At  the  City  boundary  many,  if  not  most,  of  these  powers  are 
stopped,  and  we  come  into  the  jurisdiction  of  a  separate, municipality  —  the 
City  of  London,  which  also  exercises  some  powers  beyond  its  own  precincts 
—  and  into  a  new  county — the  county  of  the  City  of  London.  For  some 
purposes,  however,  such  as  main  drainage,  the  two  areas  are  combined 
under  the  county  council  into  one,  the  administrative  county  of  London, 
comprising  both  the  county  of  London  and  the  City  of  London  with  the 
county  of  the  City  of  London.  The  task  set  before  the  commission  is  the 
amalgamation  of  these  areas  and  jurisdictions. 

That  such  an  amalgamation  is  desirable  if  it  is  practicable  we  understand 
to  be  assumed  in  the  terms  of  the  reference  to  us,  "  to  consider  the  proper 
conditions  under  which  the  amalgamation  of  the  City  and  county  of  Lon- 
don can  be  effected,  and  to  make  specific  and  practical  proposals  for  that 
purpose."  This  assumption  did  not  command  the  assent  of  our  late  col- 
league, Mr.  H.  Homewood  Crawford,  the  City  solicitor,  and  he  and  those 
who  represented  the  City  before  us  as  witnesses  protested  against  their  ap- 
pearance on  or  before  the  commission  being  regarded  as  an  admission  that 
the  amalgamation  was  desirable.  * 

i  Several  portions,  of  limited  extent,  are  omitted  from  this  republication  of  the 
Royal  Commission's  report,  as  not  necessary  to  an  understanding  of  the  principles 
or  the  policy  laid  down  in  the  document. 

354 


APPENDIX  III.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         355 

UNIFICATION  IN  ACCORDANCE  WITH  HISTORIC  DEVELOPMENT 

A  consideration  of  the  evidence  we  have  received  confirms  the  opinion 
suggested  by  the  course  of  previous  inquiries  and  of  legislation,  or,  in  other 
words,  by  the  historic  development  of  the  metropolis,  that  the  government 
of  London  must  be  intrusted  to  one  body,  exercising  certain  functions 
throughout  all  the  areas  covered  by  the  name,  and  to  a  number  of  local 
bodies  exercising  certain  other  functions  within  the  local  areas  which  col- 
lectively make  up  London,  the  central  body  and  the  local  bodies  deriving 
their  authority  as  representative  bodies  by  direct  election,  and  the  func- 
tions assigned  to  each  being  determined  so  as  to  secure  complete  indepen- 
dence and  responsibility  to  every  member  of  the  system. 

If  the  two  great  principles  of  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act,  1835, — 
viz.  (1)  extension  of  area  and  (2)  reform  of  constitution, —  had  been  ap- 
plied to  the  City  of  London  half  a  century  ago,  much  subsequent  legisla- 
tion might  have  been  spared,  and  there  would  obviously  have  been  no  ne- 
cessity for  the  present  commission.  To  complete  the  work  then  left  undone, 
and,  as  far  as  possible,  on  similar  lines,  in  order  to  bring  London  into  har- 
mony with  the  other  municipal  corporations  of  the  country,  seems  to  be 
the  proper  solution  of  the  problem  with  which  we  have  to  deal. 

Independently  of  its  position  as  the  capital  and  seat  of  government,  the 
important  points  of  difference  between  London  and  any  other  large  city  are, 
first,  its  enormous  size,  and,  secondly,  the  complexity  of  the  jurisdictions 
affecting  it.  The  term  London  is  at  present  so  indefinite  as  to  cover  at 
least  ten  different  areas,  though  the  London  with  which  we  are  concerned 
is,  as  above  stated,  the  administrative  county,  comprising  the  county  and 
the  City  and  county  of  the  City.  Many  other  cities  and  towns  are  also 
counties  in  themselves,  and  the  difference  between  counties  at  large  and 
counties  of  cities  is  rather  one  of  degree  than  one  of  principle.  Many 
boroughs  which  are  not  counties  of  cities  were  made  separate  administra- 
tive counties  (county  boroughs)  under  the  Local  Government  Act,  1888,  and 
are  thus  in  administrative  matters  exempt  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  au- 
thorities of  the  counties  in  which  they  are  situated. 

The  recent  treatment  of  the  large  area  of  London  outside  the  City  as  a 
county,  while  adequately  recognizing  its  essential  unity,  gave  undue  prom- 
inence to  county  rather  than  to  city  characteristics.  London  is  really  a 
great  town,  and  requires  town  and  not  county  government.  In  those  cities 
and  boroughs  that  are  also  counties  of  themselves,  the  county  government 
is  so  merged  and  blended  with  the  municipal  constitution  that  the  former 
in  practice  is  almost  obliterated.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  have  to  apply 
to  an  area,  called  a  county,  but  really  a  town,  now  endowed  with  an  ele- 
mentary form  of  government,  the  dignity  and  completeness  of  the  highest 
form  of  municipal  life.  » 

Our  task,  however,  does  not  end  here.  We  have  already  dwelt  on  the 
necessary  coexistence  of  a  central  body  exercising  functions  over  the  whole 
area  of  the  metropolis,  and  of  local  bodies  with  functions  exercised  within 


356          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

local  areas,  and  we  have  been  much  impressed  by  the  fact  that  whether  we 
undertake  the  organization  of  the  government  of  the  greater  area,  or  of  the 
smaller  areas  comprised  within  it,  we  are  in  all  cases  dealing  with  areas 
which  possess  the  characteristics  of  town  life,  and  the  organization  of  their 
joint  and  several  government  should  be  settled  accordingly.  London,  we 
repeat,  is  one  large  town,  which  for  convenience  of  administration,  as  well 
as  from  local  diversities,  comprises  within  itself  several  smaller  towns; 
and  the  application  of  the  principles,  and  still  more  of  the  machinery,  of 
municipal  government  to  these  several  areas  must  be  limited  by  conditions 
arising  from  this  fact. 

It  seems  possible  that  the  hesitation  which  marks  the  report  of  the  com- 
missioners of  1837  may  have  been  due  to  the  fact  that  they  imperfectly  ap- 
preciated the  double  aspects  of  unity  and  separability  of  London  as  a  whole ; 
and  this  view  of  the  problem  has  indeed  been  developed  in  later  years  by 
the  course  of  inquiry  and  legislation.  It  has  now  grown  into  so  general  an 
acceptance,  that  all  the  witnesses  before  us,  we  believe  without  exception, 
concurred  in  recognizing  the  necessity  for  the  existence  of  a  central  body 
exercising  functions  common  to  London  as  a  whole,  and  of  local  bodies  ex- 
ercising functions  restricted  to  their  localities,  both  the  one  and  the  other 
being  directly  elected  by  their  respective  constituents,  thus  having  inde- 
pendent origin  if  not  exercising  independent  jurisdictions. 

Any  controversy  that  remains  turns  upon  the  partition  of  powers  between 
this  central  and  these  local  bodies. 

POSITION  OF  "THE  CITY" 

It  will  be  at  once  apparent  that  the  principal  difficulty  in  effecting  a  re- 
organization of  the  government  of  London  as  a  whole  lies  in  the  existence 
of  the  City  as  now  limited,  containing  barely  one  square  mile  (671  acres) 
out  of  the  118  miles  (75,442  acres)  covered  by  the  administrative  county; 
with  a  population  insignificant  at  night  —  only  37,700  out  of  4,232,000  in  the 
whole  county  —  but  in  the  day-time  more  thronged  than  the  most  crowded 
district  of  the  rest  of  London ;  a  ratable  value  out  of  all  proportion  to  its 
size,  forming  i  instead  of  -rta  of  the  whole ;  and  with  an  historic  reputation 
for  splendor  and  wealth  which  is  the  pride,  rather  than  the  envy,  of  the 
rest  of  the  metropolis. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  any  change,  however  agreeable  to  the  course  of 
municipal  development  throughout  the  kingdom,  and  however  full  of  prom- 
ise of  enhanced  splendor  in  the  future,  which  proposes  to  carry  over  this 
heritage  of  tradition  and  renown  from  the  limited  area  hitherto  specially 
enjoying  it  to  the  whole  metropolis  that  has  grown  up  around  it  should  be 
viewed  with  mistrust  and  repugnance  by  those  who  may  be  called  upon  to 
share  what  they  have  hitherto  exclusively  administered  with  the  mass  of 
their  fellow-citizens. 

But  this  was  identically  the  same  difficulty  which  confronted  the  com- 
missioners of  1835  in  dealing  with  cities  second  only  to  the  City  of  London 
in  all  that  makes  London  famous.  Liverpool  and  Bristol,  no  less  than  Lon- 


APPENDIX  HI.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         357 

don,  had  a  commercial  center  with  large  estates  and  peculiar  privileges 
confined  to  a  small  number  of  citizens,  many  of  whom  were  not  resident; 
but  these  and  many  other  towns  had  their  boundaries  extended  so  as  to 
take  in  the  suburbs  at  their  gates ;  and  if  there  was  in  any  case  unwilling- 
ness to  accept  this  extension  at  first,  no  sooner  had  the  road  once  been 
opened,  than  extension  followed  extension  until  town  now  vies  with  town, 
not  which  shall  contain  the  smallest  area  and  population,  but  which  the 
largest.  We  can  hardly  believe  that,  when  the  work  of  amalgamation  has 
been  completed,  the  citizens  of  London  will  be  content  to  be  judged  by  any 
other  standard. 

DIFFERENCES  BETWEEN  LONDON  AND   OTHER  TOWNS 

The  real  point  of  difference  between  London  and  any  other  large  town, 
viz.,  its  huge  area  and  population,  makes  it  necessary  that  besides  the  over 
government  of  the  future  corporation,  there  must  be  subsidiary  bodies  to 
discharge  local  highway,  sanitary,  and  other  duties,  and  these  are  already 
found  in  the  existing  vestries  and  in  the  district  boards  created  by  the 
Metropolitan  Management  Act,  1855,  which  bodies  now  discharge  in  Lon- 
don the  important  duties  of  urban  sanitary  authorities.  Some  of  our  wit- 
nesses have  indeed  told  us  that  they  saw  no  other  limits  than  those  set  by 
the  geographical  formation  of  the  ground  to  the  extent  of  a  town  which 
might  be  directly  governed  by  a  single  municipality,  and  the  experience 
afforded  by  the  administration  of  large  continental  towns  like  Paris  and 
Berlin  lends  some  countenance  to  this  view.  But  in  the  government  of 
these  cities  there  is  an  admixture  of  state  control  materially  modifying  the 
character  of  their  administration. 

In  considering  the  government  of  the  metropolis  we  must  take  note  of 
existing  facts,  and  London  already  contains  within  itself  a  large  number  of 
separate  areas  administered  with  varying  but  in  many  cases  considerable 
success,  and  possessing  attributes  of  local  life  which  could  not  wisely  be 
weakened  or  endangered.  Whether  the  present  areas  of  local  administra- 
tion are  always  those  best  suited  for  convenience  of  management  is  a  ques- 
tion which  we  will  not  discuss  at  length ;  some  of  our  witnesses  have  urged 
the  creation  of  from  six  to  fourteen  municipalities,  with  wider  powers  and 
greater  dignities,  in  lieu  of  the  existing  forty-one  vestries  and  district  boards ; 
while  others  have  advocated  the  retention  of  an  area  as  small  as  that  of  the 
present  parish  of  St.  James,  Westminster — containing  no  more  than  164 
acres  and  a  population  of  25,000  —  as  a  separate  unit  of  local  government. 
Our  opinion  is  that  while  some  of  the  existing  areas  are  of  a  convenient  and 
suitable  size,  others  might  with  advantage  be  grouped  even  more  than  at 
present. 

QUESTIONS  TO  BE  CONSIDERED 

All  our  witnesses,  even  those  most  opposed  to  centralization,  have  ad- 
mitted the  necessity  of  having  a  central  body  charged  with  the  duties  of 
administering  matters  common  to  the  whole  of  the  metropolis,  in  this  fol- 
I.— 23* 


358          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

lowing  the  view  of  the  commissioners  of  1854.  We  think  we  may  therefore 
start  from  this  as  a  postulate,  and  confine  ourselves  to  considering  the  fol- 
lowing four  questions : 

1.  What  should  be  the  constitution  and  functions  of  this  central  body  ? 

2.  How  should  the  powers,  duties,  and  property  of  the  existing  corpora- 
tion be  dealt  with  T 

3.  What  should  be  the  functions  and  constitution  of  the  local  authority 
of  the  City  (and  other  local  authorities  in  London)  ? 

4.  In  what  relation  should  it  (and  they)  stand  to  the  central  body  ? 
These  questions  cannot  be  kept  altogether  distinct,  but  such  repetition  as 

is  necessary  will  not,  we  think,  obscure  the  issues. 


CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  NEW  CENTRAL  BODY 

The  principle  of  indirect  election  of  members  of  the  central  body  in  prac- 
tice had  the  advantage  of  keeping  the  central  body  in  touch  with  the 
local  bodies,  but  something  of  this  kind  may  perhaps  be  secured  by  other 
means ;  and  as  Parliament  deliberately  discarded  the  principle  of  indirect 
election  in  the  act  of  1888,  we  think  we  need  not  further  consider  it.  In 
the  same  act,  Parliament  applied  to  London  the  machinery  provided  for 
other  counties  of  a  council  with  councilors  elected  all  together  every  third 
year,  the  constituencies  being  the  parliamentary  constituencies  within  the 
metropolitan  area ;  and  in  applying  this  machinery  no  consideration  seems 
to  have  been  paid  to  the  fact  to  which  we  have  called  attention,  that 
London  is  a  town  with  town  life,  rather  than  a  county.  After  hearing 
evidence  on  both  sides  of  this  question  the  commissioners  do  not  feel 
called  upon  to  suggest  an  alteration  of  the  recent  decision  of  Parliament  — 
whether  taken  after  much  deliberation  or  otherwise  (and  it  does  not  appear 
that  the  point  was  debated  in  relation  to  the  metropolis)  —  until  a  larger 
experience  has  demonstrated  the  expediency  of  reopening  the  question. 

[The  commissioners  approve  of  the  present  plan  of  electing  county  coun- 
cil aldermen,  but  think  the  suggestion  that  a  change  "which  should  secure 
in  these  eoopted  members  some  representation  in  due  degree  of  the  divi- 
sions among  the  elected  councilors,  so  that  the  election  of  aldermen  should 
not  operate  as  the  addition  of  so  many  votes  to  the  power  of  the  majority," 
deserves  serious  consideration  whenever  the  question  of  the  election  of  al- 
dermen is  reopened.  It  was  suggested  that  the  aldermen  of  the  London 
corporation  should  be  elected  by  the  local  bodies,  and  this  suggestion  might 
have  the  advantage  of  keeping  the  central  body  more  in  touch  with  the 
local  bodies,  but  this  object  may  be  attained  by  other  means.] 

KUMBERS  OP  ALDERMEN  AND   COUNCILORS 

The  existing  council  consists  of  118  councilors  and  19  aldermen.  In 
view  of  the  incorporation  in  London  of  the  present  City  on  the  same  con- 


APPENDIX  III.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         359 

ditions  as  the  rest  of  the  metropolis,  it  may  be  considered  whether,  remem- 
bering that  its  ratable  value  is  about  one  eighth  of  the  ratable  value  of 
the  whole,  there  should  not  be  an  additional  representation  given  to  the 
City.  If  we  combine  the  elements  of  population  and  ratable  value,  as  is 
already  done  in  the  case  of  the  division  of  parishes  into  wards  under  the 
Local  Government  Act,  1888,  it  would  seem  that  this  representation  might 
not  unfairly  be  doubled,  so  that  the  present  City  might  have  eight  represen- 
tatives; and  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  this  would  cause  an  addition  of  one 
more  alderman  to  the  council.  We  recommend  that,  if  at  any  time  the 
council  think  fit,  they  may  frame  a  scheme  for  altering  the  number  of  al- 
dermen or  councilors  or  either  of  them.  It  is  manifestly  convenient  as  well 
as  economical  to  have  one  register  of  electors  for  both  the  central  and  local 
bodies,  and  we  think  that  the  electorate  fixed  by  the  act  of  1894  should  be 
taken  for  both. 

AN  "OLD  CITY"  CREATED,  AND  A  NEW  ONE 

We  recommend  that  the  whole  area  of  the  present  administrative  county 
of  London,  including  the  present  City,  should  in  future  be  styled  the  "  City 
of  London,"  and  should  be  a  county  in  itself ;  while  the  present  City  should 
be  styled,  and  we  shall  hereinafter  also  so  refer  to  it,  the  "Old  City." 

The  governing  body,  of  the  City  of  London  and  its  electors  should  be  in- 
corporated under  the  name  of  "the  Mayor  and  Commonalty  and  Citizens  of 
London"  —  the  designation  hitherto  borne  by  the  Old  City  —  and  this  cor- 
poration should  succeed  to  the  present  corporation  of  the  Old  City  and  the 
London  county  council,  and  should  act  through  its  council  as  already  de- 
scribed. 

A  LORD  MAYOR  FOR  ALL  LONDON 

The  council  should  elect  from  the  citizens  of  London  a  lord  mayor,  and 
he  should  be  admitted  in  the  same  manner,  and  with  the  same  ceremonies, 
as  the  lord  mayor  of  the  Old  City  is  now  admitted. 

He  should  be  the  titular  chairman  of  the  council,  but  it  should  not  be 
necessary  for  him  to  be  present  or  to  preside  at  its  meetings.  He  should  be 
the  official  representative  of  the  people  of  London,  and,  except  as  otherwise 
provided  in  our  proposals,  he  should  exercise  and  enjoy  all  the  personal  rights, 
offices,  dignities,  and  privileges  which  belong  to  the  lord  mayor  of  the  Old 
City  by  custom,  charter,  or  law. 

He  should  be  a  justice  of  the  peace  for  the  City  of  London  during  his  year 
of  office,  and,  if  not  disqualified  to  be  mayor,  for  one  year  afterward.  His 
name  should  be  included  in  the  commissions  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  and  jail 
delivery  for  the  district  of  the  central  criminal  court. 

We  further  propose  that  the  council  should  have  power  to  appropriate 
such  sum  as  it  thinks  fit  for  the  remuneration  of  the  lord  mayor,  or  the  ex- 
penses of  his  office,  and  to  choose  a  town  clerk  and  other  officers,  and  to 
pay  them  such  salaries  as  it  sees  good,  but  that  no  member  of  the  council, 


360          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

other  than  the  lord  mayor  or  sheriff,  should  hold  any  office  of  profit  under 
the  council. 

TOWN  CLERK  TO  BE  HEAD  OP  THE  STAFF 

At  present  the  head  of  the  staff  of  the  county  council  is  the  deputy  chair- 
man, one  of  the  elected  members,  who  receives  a  salary.  We  have  taken 
much  evidence  upon  the  relative  advantages  of  this  system  and  of  that  ob- 
taining in  provincial  municipalities  generally,  under  which  the  head  of  the 
staff  is  the  town  clerk,  a  permanent  officer,  usually  possessing  legal  qualifi- 
cations. We  think  it  highly  desirable  that  the  head  of  the  staff  should  be 
independent  of  the  party  divisions  and  conflicts  necessarily  found  in  the 
council,  and  we  are  impressed  with  the  inconvenience  that  would  arise  if  at 
a  critical  moment  the  corporation,  through  the  chances  of  a  contested 
election,  were  deprived  of  the  services  of  its  principal  officer.  We  are, 
therefore,  decidedly  of  opinion  that  the  system  provided  by  the  Municipal 
Corporations  Act  is  to  be  preferred. 


FUNCTIONS  OP  THE  NEW  CORPORATION 

We  think  the  resettlement  of  the  government  of  the  Old  City  should  be 
made  on  lines  which  are  capable  of  being  more  or  less  rapidly  adopted  in 
the  other  component  parts  of  London,  so  that  its  organization  may  be  re- 
garded as  an  example  to  be  followed. 

In  developing  this  principle  we  think  that  everything  possible  should  be 
done  to  maintain  the  strength,  authority,  and  dignity  of  the  local  bodies  of 
London,  and  that,  in  the  partition  of  functions  between  the  corporation  of 
London  and  local  authorities,  the  former  should  be  relieved  of  all  adminis- 
trative details  for  which  its  intervention  is  not  really  necessary,  and  the 
latter  should  be  intrusted  with  every  duty  they  can  conveniently  discharge. 
In  the  case  of  doubt  our  inclinations  would  lean  to  the  allotment  of  func- 
tions to  the  local  bodies,  and  we  believe  that  in  cases  where  uniformity  of 
action  is  necessary,  this  may  often  be  best  secured  by  giving  to  the  corpora- 
tion the  authority  to  frame  by-laws  which  should  be  locally  administered ; 
with  provision,  however,  for  the  intervention  of  the  corporation  to  secure 
their  enforcement  should  they  be  neglected. 

PRESENT  DUTIES  OF  THE  COUNTY  COUNCIL 

The  proposals  put  before  us  by  the  London  county  council  aimed  at  the 
extension  over  the  Old  City  of  the  powers  of  the  council  which  are  now 
stopped  at  its  boundary,  and  the  transfer  to  them  of  such  powers,  duties, 
and  property  now  vested  in  the  corporation  of  the  Old  City  as  relate  to  mat- 
ters in  which  the  whole  metropolis  has  an  interest.  In  distinguishing  these 
we  are  much  helped  and  guided  by  the  fact  that  the  old  corporation  has  in 


APPENDIX  III.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         3C1 

practice,  so  far  as  the  area  of  the  Old  City  is  concerned,  delegated  to  the 
commissioners  of  sewers  the  principal  part  of  the  functions  usually  exer- 
cised by  a  municipal  town  council;  and  this  delegation  suggests  a  distinc- 
tion between  central  and  local  powers  which,  though  not  in  all  cases  strictly 
accurate  or  complete,  still  affords  a  good  general  indication  of  the  division 
that  should  be  followed. 

[The  principal  functions  which  the  county  council  now  discharges  are 
then  described.] 

As  a  rule  these  powers  would  naturally  vest  in  the  new  corporation,  but 
we  think  that  they  should  be  reconsidered,  with  the  view  of  seeing  how  far 
any  of  these  functions  can  be  exercised  by  the  local  authorities  without  loss 
of  efficiency. 

FUNCTIONS  NOW  EXERCISED  BY  THE   "OLD  CITY" 

There  are  other  functions  exercised  in  other  component  parts  of  London 
by  the  county  council,  but  in  the  Old  City  by  the  corporation  or  the  commis- 
sioners of  sewers.  These  comprise  powers  exercised  in  the  City  by  the 
common  council  relating  to  bridges,  locomotive  traffic  on  highways,  street 
improvements,  water-supply,  infant  life  protection,  storage,  etc.,  of  petro- 
leum and  explosives,  contagious  diseases  (home  animals),  coroners,  gas 
(testing  purity  of),  asylums,  reformatory  schools,  shop  hours, -weights  and 
measures,  and  in  relation  to  the  following,  exercised  in  the  City  by  the 
commissioners  of  sewers ;  dangerous  structures,  unhealthy  areas,  and  pro- 
vision of  lodging-houses  for  the  working-classes  (under  the  Housing  of  the 
Working  Classes  Act),  licensing  of  offensive  trades,  and  slaughter-houses 
and  sky  signs. 

These  powers  would,  under  the  scheme  of  the  county  council,  vest  in  the 
new  corporation  for  the  whole  of  London.  But  while  we  approve  of  this 
proposal,  we  do  so  subject  to  such  reconsideration  as  has  been  already 
recommended. 

There  remain  a  few  matters,  for  which  the  existing  corporation  is  the 
authority  for  the  whole  of  London,  such  as  the  provision  of  markets,  super- 
vision of  foreign  animals  as  imported,  and  the  sanitary  administration  of 
the  port  of  London,  the  maintenance  of  Epping  Forest,  and  other  open 
spaces.  These,  while  arising  out  of,  and  dealt  with  under,  special  acts  of 
Parliament,  are  clearly  administrative  municipal  functions,  and  their  bene- 
fits extend  to  the  whole  of  London.  Accordingly  they,  with  their  appro- 
priate revenues  and  debts,  would  naturally  vest  in  the  new  corporation. 
Bridges,  which  have  already  been  included  in  this  class,  partake  of  the  same 
characteristics.  The  City  corporation  maintains  out  of  trust  funds  appro- 
priated to  the  purpose  London  Bridge,  Southwark  Bridge,  Blackfriars 
Bridge,  and  the  new  Tower  Bridge ;  and  it  will  be  observed  that  the  south- 
ern approaches  of  these  bridges,  and  the  whole  of  the  Tower  Bridge  and  its 
approaches,  are  outside  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of  the  Old  City. 

The  other  duties  of  municipal  administration,  which  in  an  ordinary  muni- 
cipality are,  as  a  rule,  exercised  by  the  town  council,  are,  in  London,  now 


362          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

vested  in  the  Old  City,  partly  in  the  corporation,  but  more  generally  in  the 
commissioners  of  sewers,  and  outside  the  City  in  the  vestries  and  district 
boards,  in  burial  boards,  overseers,  commissioners  of  baths,  wash-houses, 
and  public  libraries,  and  guardians  of  the  poor.  Many  of  these  duties,  in- 
cluding practically  the  local  sanitary  administration  of  London,  are  of  the 
greatest  possible  importance,  and  will  require  special  examination  when  we 
deal  with  the  functions  of  the  local  authorities. 

[Here  follows  a  long  section,  devoted  to  the  readjustment  in  detail  of  the 
powers,  duties,  and  property  of  the  old  corporation.] 

CEREMONIAL  FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  LORD  MAYOR,   ETC. 

As  the  new  corporation  would  inherit  and  succeed  without  breach  of  con- 
tinuity to  the  powers  and  possessions  of  the  existing  corporation,  and  as  it 
would  be  within  its  discretion  to  assign  to  the  lord  mayor  such  sums  as 
might  be  thought  proper  to  meet  the  expenses  of  his  office,  we  may  look  for 
the  maintenance  in  the  future  of  all  the  useful  and  many  of  the  stately 
traditions  of  the  past ;  and  in  particular  the  lord  mayor  may  be  trusted  to 
represent  before  the  world  the  great  community  of  which  he  is  the  head, 
with  the  splendor  becoming  his  position.  It  may  be  noted  in  this  connec- 
tion that  among  the  privileges  which  would  be  transferred,  should  our 
recommendations  be  approved,  would  be  the  right  of  special  access  of  the 
corporation  to  the  sovereign  and  of  the  presentation  of  petitions  at  the  bar 
of  the  House  of  Commons. 

OFFICERS 

The  officers  of  the  old  corporation  should,  as  far  as  possible  and  con- 
venient, be  transferred  to  the  new,  on  equitable  terms  of  employment, 
remuneration,  and  retirement  if  necessary.  As  the  functions  of  the  com- 
missioners of  sewers  would  be  vested  in  the  new  local  authority  for  the  old 
city,  their  officers  would  naturally  remain  attached  to  it,  and  it  may  also  be 
convenient  that  some  of  the  officers  of  the  old  corporation  should  remain 
connected  with  the  Old  City. 

LAW  AND  JUSTICE 

The  sheriffs  of  London  should  be  appointed  by  the  council  of  the  new  cor- 
poration, as  provided  in  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act,  1882.  The  juris- 
diction of  the  court  of  quarter-sessions  and  justices  of  the  county  of  London 
should  extend  into  the  area  of  the  Old  City,  which  should  cease  to  be  a 
county  of  itself.  . 

The  justices  by  charter  of  the  City  of  London  should  be  abolished,  but 
the  names  of  the  existing  lord  mayor  and  aldermen  of  the  Old  City  of  Lon- 
don should  be  included  in  the  commission  of  the  peace  for  the  county  of 
London.  It  would  probably  be  ultimately  found  convenient  to  extend  the 
Metropolitan  Police  Court  Acts  to  the  Old  City,  and  to  make  the  Mansion 
House  and  Guildhall  justice  rooms  metropolitan  police  courts,  as  else- 


APPENDIX  III.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         363 

where ;  but  pending  legislation  for  the  police  courts  of  the  whole  metropo- 
lis we  see  no  objection  to  the  present  aldermen  continuing  to  serve  these 
courts  so  long  as  they  can  furnish  a  rota.  The  jurisdiction  of  the  aldermen 
appears  from  the  evidence  given  before  us  to  be  both  efficient  and  popular 
with  the  classes  which  frequent  the  justice  rooms,  and  the  assistance  of 
commercial  men  is  not  unreasonably  claimed  to  be  an  advantage  in  dealing 
with  commercial  cases. 

In  the  large  provincial  municipalities  paid  and  unpaid  magistrates  not 
uncommonly  sit  together  or  in  adjacent  courts,  and  we  think  the  same  sys- 
tem might  be  usefully  tried  in  London,  especially  if  means  could  be  found 
of  allotting  to  separate  courts  the  trial  of  cases  not  properly  of  a  criminal 
character  though  involving  penalties,  such  as  summonses  under  the  Educa- 
tion, Metropolis  Management,  Building,  and  other  acts,  which  often  require 
the  attendance  of  respectable  women  and  young  children,  to  whom  the  con- 
taminating atmosphere  and  companionship  of  the  ordinary  police  court  are 
an  unnecessary  evil. 

We  have  proposed  that  the  City  of  London  court  should  pass  to  the  new 
corporation,  at  all  events  for  the  present,  and  a  similar  course  should  be 
followed  with  regard  to  the  mayor's  court,  the  jurisdiction  of  which  should 
be  extended  over  the  whole  metropolis.  The  new  corporation  would  also 
take  the  place  of  the  corporation  of  the  Old  City  in  relation  to  the  London 
Chamber  of  Arbitration.  Obsolete  courts  and  offices,  such  as  the  Court  of 
Hustings,  the  Borough  Court  and  Bailiwick  of  Southwark,  and  the  judicial 
power  of  the  city  chamberlain  over  apprentices  and  masters,  which  is  con- 
current with  that  of  the  magistrates,  should  be  abolished. 

The  recorder  of  London  should  be  the  chairman  of  quarter-sessions  for 
the  county  of  London.  The  present  chairman  of  quarter-sessions  and  the 
common  serjeant  should  be  deputy  recorders,  each  with  power  to  hold  a 
court  of  quarter-sessions  by  himself  subject  to  a  scheme  to  be  approved  by 
a  secretary  of  state.  Power  should  be  taken  for  the  new  corporation  to 
petition  the  Crown  for  the  appointment  of  additional  deputy  recorders  as 
required.  No  sufficient  reasons  exist  for  maintaining  the  present  anoma- 
lous mode  of  appointment  of  the  recorder,  and  we  recommend  that  he  should 
in  future  be  appointed,  as  in  other  boroughs,  by  the  Crown. 

The  central  criminal  court  should  continue  as  at  present,  except  that  the 
aldermen  should  no  longer  be  included  in  the  commission.  In  any  legisla- 
tion dealing  with  this  court  it  might  be  well  to  restrict  its  area  to  the  ad- 
ministrative county  of  London,  apart  from  special  removals  under  Palmer's 
Act. 

FREEMEN  AND  LIVERYMEN 

Freedom  by  patrimony,  apprenticeship,  redemption,  and  gift  should  be 
abolished  with  the  exception  that  it  should  be  lawful  for  the  new  corpora- 
tion to  grant  the  honorary  freedom  of  the  city  of  London  to  any  person  as 
a  mark  of  distinction.  The  existing  freemen  of  the  City,  who  are  livery- 
men, would  retain  the  Parliamentary  franchise,  and  the  freemen,  their 


364          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

widows,  children,  or  orphans,  should  retain  such  rights  to  charities  and 
schools  as  they  at  present  possess.  We  elsewhere  recommend  that  the 
management  of  these  schools  and  charities  should  be  reserved  to  the  local 
governing  body  of  the  Old  City. 

The  power  of  granting  and  fixing  the  numbers  of  the  livery  of  the  City 
companies  should  be  transferred  to  a  department  of  the  imperial  govern- 
ment, probably  the  privy  council,  which  at  present  deals  with  the  grant  of 
charters  to  such  companies. 

POLICE 

The  question  of  the  police  in  the  area  of  the  Old  City  must  be  dealt  with 
by  itself.  The  City  police  is  now  under  the  control  of  a  commissioner  ap- 
pointed by  the  common  council,  with  the  approval  of  the  secretary  of 
state,  and  removable  for  misconduct,  either  by  him,  or  by  the  court  of  al- 
dermen with  his  approval.  The  pay,  clothing,  and  general  equipment  of 
the  force  are  dealt  with  by  a  committee  of  the  court  of  common  council, 
but  the  commissioner  is  practically  independent  in  all  matters  relating  to 
the  discipline  and  disposal  of  the  force,  the  control  of  the  corporation  over 
him  being  much  less  than  that  exercised  by  the  watch  committee  of  an  or- 
dinary municipality  over  their  chief  constable.  The  expenses  of  the  force 
are  paid,  one  fourth  —  about  £30,000 — by  the  corporation,  out  of  their  gen- 
eral estates  and  revenues,  and  three  fourths  out  of  the  police  rate,  which  is 
levied  on  the  wards,  together  with  the  ward  rate  to  meet  ward  expenses. 

The  county  council  have  proposed  that  this  force  should  be  transferred 
on  amalgamation  to  the  new  corporation,  and  that  one  fourth  of  its  cost 
should  continue  to  be  paid  by  the  new  corporation  out  of  their  general 
revenues,  the  remainder,  about  £90,000,  being  raised,  as  at  present,  by 
rate.  We  cannot  say  that  we  concur  in  this  proposal.  Though  we  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  any  serious  harm  results  from  the  present  arrange- 
ment, the  advantages  of  having  the  whole  of  the  police  of  the  metropolis 
under  one  administration  are  so  obvious  that  we  do  not  see  that  any  coun- 
terbalancing advantage  would  be  gained  by  vesting  in  the  new  corporation 
the  control  of  a  small  part  of  it.  It  has  been  pointed  out  by  the  commis- 
sioner of  metropolitan  police  that  any  control  of  the  police  within  the  area 
of  the  Old  City  by  a  body  having  general  jurisdiction  over  the  metropolis 
without  the  City  would  be  a  very  different  thing  to,  and  might  lead  to  much 
more  serious  inconvenience  than,  the  control  of  the  police  within  the  Old 
City  area  by  a  body  having  general  jurisdiction  only  within  that  area. 
With  whom  the  control  of  the  police  of  London,  as  a  whole,  should  rest,  it 
is  not  for  us  to  discuss ;  but  we  can  only  say  that,  so  long  as  it  remains  un- 
der the  imperial  government,  the  police  within  the  area  of  the  Old  City 
should  form  part  of  it. 

If  the  force  within  the  Old  City  were  thus  fused  with  the  metropolitan 
police  there  would  result,  on  the  present  figures,  an  advantage  to  the  Lon- 
don ratepayers  of  over  £50,000  per  annum,  supposing  that  the  metropolitan 
police  force  were  correspondingly  increased,  and  that  the  imperial  exche- 


APPENDIX  HI.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         365 

quer  contributed,  as  iu  the  rest  of  London,  four  ninths  of  the  cost  of  the 
pay  and  clothing  of  the  whole,  as  follows : 

Total  present  cost  of  City  police  force  per  annum  (say) .     £120,000 
Of  which  there  is  paid  by  the  corporation  out  of  its  general 
revenues 30,000 


Leaving  to  be  raised  by  police  rate £90,000 


As  proposed: 

Total  cost  of  addition  to  metropolitan  police  to  replace  the 

Old  City  police  force  (say) £120,000 

Contribution  from  imperial  revenues  (four  ninths  of  whole)      53,333 


Leaving  to  be  raised  by  rate £66,667 

It  has  been  urged  on  behalf  of  the  Old  City  that  if  its  area  was  policed 
by  the  metropolitan  police  force,  there  would  be  a  danger  lest  the  commis- 
sioner should  assign  to  that  district  a  number  inadequate  to  protect  the 
banks  and  warehouses,  with  all  their  valuable  contents,  which  are  often 
left  entirely  unoccupied  at  night,  even  by  a  caretaker.  The  experience  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  police  is  managed  by  the  watch  committees  in 
large  provincial  towns  with  business  quarters  does  not  justify  this  appre- 
hension, and  it  can  hardly  be  suggested  that  the  imperial  authorities  would 
not  have  the  necessary  regard  to  interests  so  important.  In  addition  it 
may  be  remarked  that  there  would  apparently  be  no  difficulty  in  arrange- 
ments being  made  for  the  assignment  of  a  larger  number  of  police  than  the 
commissioner  thought  necessary,  so  as  to  meet  the  views  of  the  local 
authority,  upon  its  paying  for  them,  as  banks,  docks,  railway  companies, 
and  other  institutions  pay  for  their  own  special  police. 

The  chairman  of  the  Essex  county  council,  Mr.  Andrew  Johnston,  has 
thrown  out  the  suggestion  that,  in  the  event  of  the  control  of  the  metropoli- 
tan police  being  transferred  to  the  new  corporation,  it  might  be  convenient 
for  the  area  in  the  southwest  of  Essex,  now  under  the  control  of  that  force, 
to  be  separated  from  it,  and  given  its  own  police  jointly  with  West  Ham. 
It  may  be  remembered  that  this  suggestion  is  in  agreement  with  the  report 
of  the  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1867,  to  the  effect  that 
the  remoter  districts  of  the  metropolitan  police  area  might  be  annexed  to 
the  neighboring  county  districts  where  an  efficient  police  had  been  estab- 
lished. So  long,  however,  as  the  metropolitan  police  continues,  as  at 
present,  under  the  control  of  the  home  secretary,  no  change  is  desired. 

FINANCE 

We  propose  that  there  should  be  one  City  or  Borough  Fund  for  London, 
and  that  there  should  be  a  rate  levied  by  the  new  corporation,  to  be  called 


366          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

the  City  or  Borough  Rate.  So  far  as  any  functions  may  be  intrusted  to 
the  council  of  the  Old  City  which  are  at  present  vested  in  the  London 
county  council  as  regards  the  rest  of  London,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
have  a  special  fund  and  rate,  as  well  as  a  general  fund  and  rate ;  but  we 
contemplate  that  the  existence  of  the  former  should  be  temporary  only. 
We  think  it  of  the  highest  importance  that  the  relation  of  the  central  body 
to  the  local  bodies  should  be  uniform  throughout  London,  and  that  the 
separate  funds  and  rates  should  only  exist  until  the  functions  of  the  district 
councils  generally  are  assimilated  to  those  assigned  to  that  of  the  Old  City, 
should  the  resettlement  of  the  other  districts  not  be  contemporaneous  with 
that  of  the  Old  City. 

The  county  council  have  made  detailed  proposals  for  the  management  of 
this  fund,  and  the  incorporation  in  it  of  the  several  funds  now  managed  by 
the  county  council  and  the  old  corporation,  which  seem  to  us,  in  the  main, 
unobjectionable.  These  contemplate  that  a  separate  account  should  be 
kept  of,  inter  alia,  markets  receipts  and  expenditure,  with  the  provision 
that  any  net  surplus  receipts  therefrom,  after  allowing  for  all  contingent 
liabilities,  should  be  devoted  to  the  extension  or  improvement  of  market 
accommodation,  the  reduction  of  tolls,  or  otherwise  for  the  purposes  of 
markets  generally  throughout  London.  We  approve  of  this  proposal,  but 
in  view  of  the  uncertainty  of  the  receipts  from  many  of  the  markets,  we 
think  that  a  considerable  reserve  fund  should  be  built  up  out  of  these  sur- 
plus receipts  before  they  are  applied  as  proposed. 

The  proposals  of  the  county  council  contemplate  the  formation  of  a 
separate  "Corporation  Estates  Account,"  into  which  all  receipts  in  the  na- 
ture of  income  arising  from  property  transferred  from  the  corporation  of 
the  Old  City,  except  market  receipts,  should  be  paid,  and  upon  which  all 
debts  and  sums  of  money  secured  upon  or  payable  out  of  any  of  those  re- 
ceipts should  be  made  a  first  charge  according  to  their  several  priorities. 
The  proposals  suggest  that  any  surplus  remaining  after  satisfying  these 
charges  should  be  divided  according  to  its  origin  into  portions  under  the 
following  heads,  viz. : 

(1)  Charity  estates. 

(2)  Bridge-house  and  Blackfriars-bridge  estates. 

(3)  Other  trust  and  statutory  funds. 

(4)  General  estates. 

And  should  be  respectively  applied  to  — 

(1)  Charitable  objects. 

(2)  Other  bridges  and  tunnels  in  London. 

(3)  Objects  similar  to  those  to  which  such  portion  is  now  applicable. 

(4)  Any  purposes  to  which  such  portion  may  now  be  applied. 

It  appears  to  us  that  there  would  be  great  and  unnecessary  difficulty  in 
working  out  this  plan,  and  that  it  would  be  better  to  keep  these  four  ac- 
counts separate — as  we  have  already  recommended  with  regard  to  the 


APPENDIX  III.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         367 

markets,  and,  in  effect,  to  the  "bridges — until  at  least  the  obligations  out- 
standing in  respect  to  any  one  were  satisfied,  when  the  question  of  merg- 
ing the  assets  of  such  account  in  the  general  estates  might  be  reconsidered. 
Meanwhile,  after  allowing  a  sufficient  reserve,  the  balance  on  the  general 
estates  account  should  pass  into  the  City  or  Borough  Fund. 

If  the  City  or  Borough  Fund  is  insufficient  to  meet  the  expenditure  of  the 
corporation  in  any  year,  the  deficit  should  be  made  good  by  a  rate  to  be 
levied  for  that  purpose  over  the  whole  of  the  metropolis,  subject  to  the 
provision  as  regards  a  special  rate  already  referred  to  in  respect  of  the  Old 
City. 

In  addition  to  the  purposes  already  specified,  the  county  council  has 
proposed  that  the  council  of  the  new  corporation  should  have  power  to 
vote  the  expenditure  of  money  out  of  the  City  or  Borough  Fund  for  the 
purposes  of  entertaining  and  of  conferring  the  freedom  of  the  City  of  London 
upon,  and  for  making  presentations  to,  distinguished  persons,  and  of  con- 
tributing to  public  charitable  objects,  and  of  making  inquiries  into  any 
matter  of  municipal  concern,  and  of  illuminating  and  decorating  the 
streets  on  occasions  of  public  rejoicing,  and  of  the  purchase  of  works  of 
art  and  books  for  civic  galleries  and  libraries,  and  of  maintaining  the  City 
of  London  School  and  the  Guildhall  School  of  Music. 

In  these  recommendations  we  concur ;  but  we  think  it  necessary  before 
any  expenditure  is  incurred  upon  objects  beyond  these,  that  the  consent  of 
the  Local  Government  Board  should  be  obtained.  We  think  also  that  the 
power  of  the  new  corporation  to  alienate  corporate  property  should  be 
made  subject  to  the  restrictions  imposed  by  the  Municipal  Corporations 
Act  upon  town  councils  generally. 

We  think,  also,  that  the  corporation  should  be  subject  to  restriction  as 
to  the  amount  of  debt  which  they  may  charge  upon  future  ratepayers,  and 
that  they  should  be  bound  to  pay  off  their  debts  within  a  limited  period. 
What  such  restrictions  or  limitations  should  be  is  a  matter  which  we 
cannot  undertake  to  settle,  and  must  be  left  to  be  determined  from  time  to 
time  by  the  government  and  by  Parliament.  It  may,  however,  be  laid  down 
as  a  general  rule  that  the  amounts  to  be  borrowed,  and  the  purposes  to  which 
they  may  be  applied,  should  be  strictly  defined,  as  those  of  the  present 
London  county  council  are  in  the  acts  by  which  loans  are  sanctioned,  and 
that  the  duration  of  any  loan  should  never  exceed  the  probable  duration 
for  any  work  for  the  execution  of  which  it  was  raised. 

The  treasurer  of  the  new  corporation  should,  we  think,  retain  the  title  of 
chamberlain,  but  he  should  be  elected,  as  provided  by  the  Municipal  Cor- 
porations Act,  by  the  corporation,  and  should  hold  office  on  the  same  con- 
ditions as  a  borough  treasurer. 

Besides  the  restrictions  imposed  upon  ordinary  boroughs  by  sections  139 
to  149  of  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act,  1882,  as  regards  payments  out  of 
the  Borough  Fund,  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1888  laid  upon  the  London 
county  council  further  restrictions  from  which  county  boroughs  were  in 
terms  exempted,  viz. : 


368          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

(1)  That  all  payments  out  of  the  county  fund  should  be  made  in  pursu- 
ance of  an  order  of  the  council,  signed  by  three  members  of  the  finance 
committee  present  at  the  meeting,   and  by  the  clerk    of    the    council. 
(Section  80.) 

(2)  That  no  order  for  the  payment  of  money  should  be  made,  and  no 
liability  exceeding  £50  be  incurred,  except  upon  a  resolution  of  the  coun- 
cil passed  on  a  recommendation  of  the  finance  committee.     (Section  80.) 

(3)  That  three  clear  days  before  any  meeting  of  the  council  a  summons 
should  be  sent  to  every  member,  specifying  the  business  to  be  transacted, 
and  stating  every  sum  of  which  payment  was  to  be  ordered,  and  the 
amount  of  every  liability  over  £50  which  was  to  be  incurred,  with  the 
purposes  for  which  they  were  to  be  paid  or  incurred.     (Section  80.) 

We  have  had  evidence  to  show  that  some  difficulty  is  experienced  by 
large  corporations  in  complying  strictly  even  with  the  comparatively 
elastic  provisions  of  the  Municipal  Corporations  Act  as  regards  finance, 
and  the  ingenuity  of  the  London  county  council  is  taxed  to  find  means  of 
observing  the  letter  of  the  more  rigid  requirements  of  the  act  of  1888. 
The  result  of  these  provisions  is  to  load  the  agenda  papers  and  weekly 
cash  statements  of  the  county  council  (of  which  we  were  shown  copies) 
with  an  unnecessary  mass  of  details,  which  serve  no  end  but  to  provoke 
useless  discussion.  We  are  strongly  of  opinion  that  no  sufficient  reason 
exists  for  subjecting  the  finance  of  the  new  corporation  of  London  to 
greater  restrictions  in  this  respect  than  those  imposed  upon  the  finance  of 
other  municipal  boroughs. 


It  seems  doubtful  whether  the  machinery  of  audit  provided  by  the  Mu- 
nicipal Corporations  Act  would  be  well  suited  to  the  circumstances  of  the 
metropolis.  Under  it  three  auditors  are  annually  appointed,  two  being 
elected  by  the  burgesses  and  one  (who  must  be  a  member  of  the  council) 
nominated  by  the  mayor,  and  the  term  of  office  of  each  is  one  year  only. 
There  is  no  provision  in  the  act  as  to  the  remuneration  of  these  officers. 
Under  the  reorganization  of  the  Old  City  the  City's  cash  and  other  principal 
accounts  are  audited  by  four  persons  serving  for  two  years  —  two  going  out 
of  office  each  year,  and  being  ineligible  for  twelve  months ;  and  these  gen- 
tlemen are  elected  by  the  Livery  in  Common  Hall  under  a  statute  of  George 
I.  Under  the  general  provisions  of  the  Local  Government  Act,  1888,  the  ac- 
counts of  the  London  county  council  are  audited,  like  those  of  other  county 
councils,  by  district  auditors  appointed  by  the  Local  Government  Board.  The 
act  of  1894  provides  that  the  accounts  of  parish  councils  and  of  urban 
district  councils  shall  also  be  audited  by  the  district  auditors  of  the  Local 
Government  Board,  but  the  construction  of  the  act  appears  somewhat  un- 
certain in  relation  to  the  accounts  of  London  vestries.  We  think  it  ex- 
pedient to  maintain  for  the  new  corporation  the  machinery  of  audit 
provided  for  the  London  county  council,  and  we  would  recommend  that 


APPENDIX  III.—  THE  UNIFICATION  OF   LONDON         369 

the  latest  legislation  should  be  followed,  by  requiring  that  the  corporation 
accounts  shall  be  audited  by  two  district  auditors  appointed  by  the  Local 
Government  Board,  with  whom,  however,  might  be  associated  a  third 
auditor  appointed  by  the  lord  mayor. 


FUNCTIONS  OF  THE  LOCAL  AUTHORITIES 

As  we  have  already  said,  we  contemplate  the  establishment  in  the  Old 
City  of  a  local  authority  for  the  discharge  of  the  functions  of  local  admin- 
istration at  present  exercised  within  that  area  by  the  common  council  and 
the  commissioners  of  sewers,  and  outside  by  vestries  and  district  boards. 

These  functions  comprise  amongst  others : 

(1)  Sanitary  administration  generally,  including  the  sanitary  construction 
and  drainage  of  new  buildings,  control  over  unhealthy  dwellings  under 
the  Housing  of  the  Working  Classes  Act,  and  sewers  other  than  main 
sewers. 

(2)  Maintenance  of  highways  other  than  main  roads,  including  the  regu- 
lation of  locomotive  traffic  and  tramways  upon  them,  and  small  street  im- 
provements. 

(3)  Valuation  and  assessment  and  registration  of  voters  (in  cases  where 
the  vestries  exercise  the  powers  of  overseers). 

(4)  The  provision  and  maintenance  of  small  open  spaces  and  mortuaries. 

(5)  Powers  as  regards  electric  lighting  and  (as  regards  the  four  small 
companies  only)  gas-supply. 

(6)  The  administration  of  the  Overhead  Wires  and  Sale  of  Food  and 
Drugs  Acts. 

These  functions,  with  their  respective  officers,  buildings,  sources  of  in- 
come, and  debts,  would,  subject  to  the  observations  made  elsewhere  as  to 
the  partition  of  powers  and  duties  between  the  central  and  local  bodies, 
remain  with  the  local  authority  of  the  Old  City. 

The  powers  of  the  corporation  and  commissioners  of  sewers  in  the  city, 
however,  extend  beyond  these,  embracing  in  addition  powers  as  regards 

Dangerous  structures ; 

Unhealthy  areas;  ,  Under  fte  Hougin    of  fte 

Provision  of  lodging-houses  for  the  working-  £     WorM      Classes  Act 

classes ; 
Licensing  of  offensive  trades  and  slaughter-houses,  and  registration  and 

inspection  of  dairies; 
The  administration  of  the  Sky  Signs  and  Weights  and  Measures  Acts, 

which  are  in  the  rest  of  London  exercised  by  the  county  council.    These 
powers,  as  well  as  all  or  most  of  those  now  exercised  by  the  common  coun- 

I.—  24 


370          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 

eil  in  the  area  of  the  Old  City,  would,  subject  to  the  qualification  already 
suggested,  naturally  pass  to  the  new  corporation. 

The  duty  of  inspecting  common  lodging-houses  is  now  intrusted  in  the 
Old  City  to  the  commissioners  of  sewers,  and  outside  it  to  the  metropolitan 
police ;  but  negotiations  are,  we  understand,  proceeding  with  a  view  to  its 
transfer  in  the  latter  case  to  the  county  council.  If  this  transfer  should 
take  place,  the  duty  of  inspecting  these  houses  in  the  area  of  the  Old  City 
would  naturally  also  pass  to  the  new  corporation,  otherwise  it  should  be 
confined  to  the  police  controlling  the  Old  City. 

We  have  already  stated  that  we  have  taken  much  evidence  on  the  subject 
of  the  partition  of  powers  between  the  central  body  and  the  local  bodies,  to 
which  we  desire  to  call  particular  attention.  We  venture  to  repeat  that  we 
think  it  important  for  the  sake  of  the  dignity  and  usefulness  of  the  local 
bodies,  whose  status  should  be  enhanced  as  much  as  possible,  as  well  as  for 
the  sake  of  the  central  body  —  where  a  continuous  increase  of  work  may  be 
expected,  requiring  relief  from  needless  administrative  detail — that  no 
duties  shall  be  thrown  upon  the  central  body  that  can  be  equally  well  per- 
formed by  the  local  authorities. 

It  must  at  the  same  time  be  remembered  that  there  is  often  an  adminis- 
trative advantage  in  dissociating  from  local  influences  officers  intrusted 
with  the  enforcement  of  penal  statutes.  This  would  apply,  for  instance,  to 
the  administration  of  the  Weights  and  Measures  Act,  now  enforced  by  the 
county  council  and  common  council,  and  the  Food  and  Drugs  Act,  now  ad- 
ministered by  the  commissioners  of  sewers  and  the  vestries  and  district 
boards  within  and  without  the  Old  City  respectively.  In  such  matters  as 
the  licensing  or  inspection  of  cow-houses,  dairies,  slaughter-houses,  and 
offensive  businesses,  and,  no  doubt,  in  many  other  cases  of  a  similar  kind, 
the  central  body  should,  to  whatever  hands  the  immediate  administra- 
tion is  intrusted,  have,  in  accordance  with  the  general  principle  we  have 
already  enunciated,  power  to  regulate  the  performance  of  the  work  by 
general  by-laws,  so  as  to  secure  uniformity  of  administration.  The  admin- 
istration of  the  Petroleum  and  Explosive  Acts,  involving,  as  it  does,  the 
superintendence  of  their  removal  from  place  to  place,  as  well  as  of  their 
storage,  should,  we  think,  for  convenience'  sake,  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
central  authority. 

It  might  be  well  in  any  legislation  to  provide  some  machinery  for  such  a 
repartition  of  functions  between  the  central  and  local  authorities  as  ex- 
perience might  prove  desirable,  without  having  recourse  to  Parliament  in 
each  particular  case. 

The  commissioners  of  sewers  also  provide  burial-grounds,  a  duty  which 
outside  the  area  of  the  Old  City  is  intrusted  to  commissioners  appointed  by 
the  vestries  of  the  several  parishes.  Many  of  our  witnesses  have  urged 
that  the  powers  of  the  vestries  and  district  boards  should  be  extended  so 
as  to  embrace  these  functions,  and  also  the  provision  of  public  libraries  — 
a  duty  which  in  the  Old  City  rests  with  the  court  of  common  council,  and 
outside  the  Old  City  with  commissioners  appointed  by  vestries  and  district 


APPENDIX  III.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         371 

boards  adopting  the  Public  Libraries  Acts — and  of  baths  and  wash-houses, 
which  is  in  the  hands  of  commissioners  appointed  by  the  vestries  both 
within  and  outside  the  Old  City.  In  this  recommendation  we  concur,  and 
would  desire  that  all  these  powers,  as  well  as  those  of  the  present  vestries 
and  district  boards,  should,  subject  to  the  observations  made  above,  be 
intrusted  to  the  new  local  authority  of  the  Old  City.  We  think,  however, 
that  it  might  be  well  to  retain  a  power  of  appointing  on  the  libraries  and, 
perhaps,  the  baths  and  wash-houses  committee,  gentlemen  interested  in 
these  matters  who  are  not  members  of  the  council.  We  think  that  it  would 
be  well  if  the  registration  of  births,  deaths,  and  marriages,  and  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  Vaccination  Acts,  were  intrusted  to  the  same  authority,  under 
the  control  of  the  imperial  government,  as  at  present.  Their  present  as- 
sociation with  the  administration  of  the  poor-law  is  accidental,  and  may 
lead  to  misconception. 

With  the  local  authority  of  the  Old  City  would  remain  the  management 
of  many  charities  and  trusts,  and  the  property  belonging  thereto,  including 
some,  if  not  all,  of  the  following,  viz. : 

The  Freemen's  Orphan  School. 

The  London  Almshouses. 

The  Gresham  Almshouses. 

Wilson's  Loan  Charity. 

Emanuel  Hospital  (Pensions). 

The  Mitchell  (City  of  London)  Charity. 

The  City  of  London  Parochial  Charities. 

Kussell's  Charity. 

Inasmuch  as  these,  and  other  functions  which  we  have  not  recommended 
should  be  transferred  to  the  new  corporation,  involve  an  expenditure  in 
excess  of  the  income  derivable  from  the  trust  and  other  estates  applicable 
thereto,  we  have  proposed  that  the  new  corporation  should,  on  taking  over 
the  general  estates  and  revenues  of  the  old,  assign  to  the  local  authority  of 
the  Old  City  suitable  revenues  or  a  fixed  annual  payment  to  meet  such  ex- 
penditures on  these  objects  as  could  not  properly  be  met  out  of  rates, 
together  with  the  appropriate  buildings  and  officers.  Some  assignment  is 
clearly  necessary  in  respect  of  the  Gresham  almshouses,  since  the  en- 
dowment of  the  Gresham  trusts,  out  of  which  they  have  been  sustained, 
would  pass  to  the  new  corporation. 

The  council  of  the  Old  City  should,  like  the  local  bodies  of  the  other 
districts  of  the  metropolis,  have  power  to  appoint  officers  and  levy  a  rate, 
and  should  be  subject  to  the  same  provisions  as  regards  audit  as  district 
councils  generally  under  the  Local  Government  Act  of  1894. 

CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  LOCAL  AUTHORITIES 

We  turn  now  to  the  constitution  of  the  local  authority  for  the  Old  City 
area,  in  considering  which  we  have  again  borne  in  mind  the  circumstances 


372          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN 

of  the  vestries  and  district  boards,  so  that  what  we  may  say  may  apply 
with  but  slight  modification  to  them. 

COMPOSITION    AND    NUMBERS 

The  present  common  council  of  the  City  consists  of  no  less  than  232 
members  —  viz.,  26  aldermen  and  206  common  councilors —  a  number  which 
we  cannot  regard  as  being  in  any  way  necessary  for  efficient  administra- 
tion. The  number  of  the  commissioners  of  sewers  is  92,  and  even  this 
number  seems  large.  The  maximum  number  of  members  allowed  by  the 
act  of  1855  to  a  vestry  or  district  board  is  120,  and  most  of  the  witnesses 
who  were  in  a  position  to  express  an  opinion  on  this  subject  thought  this 
number  unnecessarily  and  even  inconveniently  large,  an  opinion  in  which 
we  concur.  The  largest  number  of  members  comprised  in  a  provincial 
corporation  is,  we  believe,  72,  and  this  much  exceeds  the  number  found 
sufficient  for  towns  far  larger  in  size  than  the  Old  City. 

In  bringing  the  organization  of  the  Old  City  into  lines  applicable,  when 
not  already  existing,  to  other  parts  of  the  metropolis,  some  reduction  in 
number  in  the  governing  body  is  necessary,  besides  other  changes  which 
may  appear  considerable  ;  but  the  experience  of  the  Municipal  Corporations 
Act  of  1835  leads  us  to  believe  that  all  of  them  may  be  accomplished  with- 
out practical  difficulty.  The  new  governing  body  should  be  elected  as 
elsewhere  in  the  metropolis,  and  the  right  of  election  should  be  exercised 
under  the  enlarged  franchises  of  the  act  of  1894.  We  think  reasons  of 
analogy  as  well  as  a  large  preponderance  of  advantage  lead  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  governing  body  should  be  elected  in  thirds  every  year,  the 
term  of  office  of  each  member  being  three  years.  A  suitable  number  of 
members  would,  in  our  judgment,  be  72,  and  the  Old  City  should  be  divided 
into  24  wards  each  represented  by  three  members.  The  present  commis- 
sioners of  sewers  might  be  invited  to  frame  a  scheme  for  this  division  of 
the  Old  City ;  but,  in  the  event  of  any  difficulty  arising,  the  work  could  be 
otherwise  performed.  We  think  the  body  thus  elected  should  be  called  the 
council  of  the  Old  City,  and  the  elected  members  should  be  empowered  to 
choose  annually  from  the  citizens  of  the  Old  City  a  mayor,  and  the  govern- 
ing body  should  be  styled  the  mayor  and  council  of  the  Old  City.  As  a 
transitory  arrangement  which  would  be  useful  in  maintaining  some  contin- 
uity of  administration,  the  existing  aldermen  should  be  entitled  to  sit  as 
additional  life  members  of  this  body.  The  mayor  should  be  ex  officio  justice 
of  the  peace  for  the  county  of  London,  and,  as  we  have  already  said,  the 
existing  aldermen  who  are  now  justices  of  the  Old  City  would  properly 
become  justices  of  the  county.  We  have  not  suggested  that  the  alder- 
men should  form  permanently  a  part  of  the  new  governing  body  of  the 
Old  City.  As  we  have  intimated,  we  have  had  in  view  the  other  parts  of 
London,  and  whilst  it  would  be  easy,  and  for  many  reasons  desirable,  to 
confer  on  these  governing  bodies  the  name  of  council,  and  to  enable  them 
to  elect  mayors  of  their  respective  districts,  no  element  analogous  to  that 


APPENDIX  III.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         373 

of  alderman  is  found  in  their  present  composition,  nor  have  we  met  with 
any  desire  to  adopt  such  an  addition. 

We  may  here  recall  a  question  to  which  allusion  has  already  been  made. 
Many  witnesses  have  urged  the  propriety  of  establishing  some  personal 
connection  between  the  local  governing  bodies  and  the  central  authority 
of  the  metropolis,  and  we  concur  in  thinking  this  a  desirable  object.  We 
believe  it  could  be  best  secured  by  making,  where  the  areas  are  contermin- 
ous, the  members  of  the  central  body  elected  for  any  district  ex  officio 
members  of  the  local  governing  body  of  the  district.  The  four  (or,  if  our 
suggestion  is  adopted,  the  eight)  representatives  of  the  Old  City  in  the  new 
corporation  would  then  be  members  of  the  council  of  the  Old  City.  We 
have  been  assured  by  many  witnesses  entitled  to  speak  on  the  subject  that 
there  would  be  no  jealousy  on  the  part  of  members  of  existing  vestries 
against  the  addition  to  their  own  numbers  of  the  representatives  of  the 
same  district  in  the  central  body,  and  in  at  least  one  vestry  a  formal  reso- 
lution has  been  passed  inviting  their  presence.  We  believe  the  same 
friendly  reception  would  be  generally  experienced,  and  the  reorganization 
of  the  Old  City  affords  an  opportunity  of  introducing  an  element  which 
would  bring  the  corporation  of  the  whole  City  into  touch  with  the  councils 
of  its  component  parts. 

AREAS    OP    LOCAL    ADMINISTRATION 

The  suggestion  we  have  thus  supported  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
question  of  the  rearrangement  of  the  areas  of  local  administration,  which 
we  have  already  said  we  would  discuss  in  dealing  with  the  reconstitution 
of  the  Old  City.  In  order  to  adopt  universally  the  proposal  that  the  mem- 
bers of  the  corporation  representing  any  given  area  should  be  ex  officio 
members  of  the  local  governing  body,  it  would  be  necessary  that  the  areas 
for  local  administration  should  either  coincide  with  the  areas  for  electing 
members  of  the  corporation,  or  should  actually  contain  two  or  more  of 
them.  This  condition  would  prevail  in  the  City  and  in  the  following 
parishes,  where  the  proposal  might,  therefore,  be  at  once  adopted : 

St.  Marylebone.  Paddington. 

St.  Pancras.  Bethnal-green,  St.  Matthew. 

Lambeth.  Newington,  St.  Mary  (Surrey). 

St.  George's,  Hanover  Square.  Clerkenwell,  St.  James  and  St.  John. 

Islington,  St.  Mary.  Chelsea. 

Shoreditch,  St.  Leonard.  Hampstead,  St.  John. 

Kensington,  St.  Mary  Abbott's.  Westminster,  St.  Margaret  and 

Fulham.  St.  John. 

Hammersmith.  Poplar. 

Mile-end  Old  Town.  Whitechapel. 

It  will  be  seen  how  large  a  part  of  the  metropolitan  area  is  thus  readjt  for 
the  immediate  application  of  the  proposal,  and  a  very  slight  alteration  of 

I.— 24* 


374          MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT   BRITAIN 

present  arrangements  would  extend  its  application  so  as  to  nearly  cover 
the  metropolis.  It  is  beyond  our  power  to  make  proposals  leading  up  to 
this  extension,  and,  if  the  principle  "be  adopted,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
provide  other  machinery  to  secure  its  complete  application.  We  may, 
however,  point  out  that  the  vestries  of  all  the  areas  we  have  just  specified 
might  be  at  once  styled  councils  and  invested  with  the  privilege  of  choos- 
ing a  mayor,  so  that  within  each  of  these  areas  the  mayor  and  council 
would  be  its  governing  body. 

Considerations  of  local  feeling  and  of  historic  development  would  have 
to  be  weighed  in  conjunction  with  those  of  administrative  convenience  in 
extending  this  organization  to  the  rest  of  the  metropolis;  but  we  are  much 
impressed  with  a  sense  of  the  expediency  of  attaining  a  result  highly  con- 
ducive to  the  simplification  and  efficiency  of  the  government  of  London. 

RELATIONS  OF  THE  LOCAL  AUTHORITY  OF  THE  OLD  CITY 

AND  OF  THE  OTHER  LOCAL  AUTHORITIES  TO 

THE  NEW  CORPORATION 

There  remains  the  final  question  of  the  relation  which  the  new  council  of 
the  Old  City  and  the  councils,  if  we  may  so  describe  them,  of  the  other 
districts  of  London  should  bear  to  the  corporation.  The  feasibility  of  a 
personal  connection  between  them  we  have  already  discussed  in  dealing 
with  the  resettlement  of  the  Old  City;  and  we  have  only  to  indicate  some- 
what further  than  we  have  already  done  the  administrative  control  to 
which  the  local  authorities  should  be  subject  on  the  part  of  the  central. 
The  control  at  present  exercised  by  the  county  council  over  the  vestries 
and  district  boards  is  of  three  kinds  — 

(1)  It  frames  by-laws  under  which  they  work — e.  g.,  for  sanitary  matters 
generally,  for  locomotive  traffic  on  highways  other  than  main  roads,  regu- 
lating the  formation  of  new  streets,  drainage  of  buildings,  etc. 

(2)  It  has  power  to  act  in  default,  as  in  sanitary  matters,  and  an  appeal 
lies  in  some  cases  from  the  action  of  the  local  authority  to  the  county 
council — e,  g.,  as  regards  the  construction  of  drains,  etc. 

(3)  Its  consent  is  necessary  in  certain  matters — e.  g.,  to  the  raising  of 
loans,  or  closing  streets  for  repairs. 

(1)  Most  of  our  witnesses,  even  those  who  urge  most  strongly  the  ag- 
grandizement and  independence  of  the  local  authorities,  recognize  the 
practical  inconvenience  of  having  the  administration  of  an  act  different 
in  one  locality  from  that  in  another,  and  are  content  that,  to  secure 
uniformity  all  over  the  metropolis,  the  central  authority  should  frame  by- 
laws under  which  the  local  bodies  should  work.  In  this  we  fully  concur, 
and  we  think  that  if  this  were  done,  some  of  the  functions  now  adminis- 
tered directly  by  the  central  authority  might  safely  be  intrusted  to  the 
local  authorities. 


APPENDIX  III.— THE  UNIFICATION  OF  LONDON         375 

(2)  The  power  to  act  in  cases  of  default  and  of  appeal,  especially  in  sani- 
tary matters,  is  one  that  must  be  preserved.     We  would  wish  to  see  the  di- 
rect administration  by  the  central  authority  of  such  matters  as  are  within 
the  scope  of  a  district  authority  lessened,  as  far  as  possible,  and  its  action 
limited  to  general  supervision  and  control  in  cases  where  it  is  necessary. 
The  mere  fact  that  such  supervision,  control,  and  appeal  exist,  with  the 
power  of  taking  action  in  default,  is  often  sufficient  to  secure  effective  per- 
formance of  a  duty,  without  actual  exercise  of  that  power. 

(3)  As  regards  consent  to  loans  and  other  matters,  we  do  not  find  that 
as  a  rule  it  has  been  arbitrarily  exercised,  or  is  likely  to  be  in  future,  and 
we  think  that  in  this  respect  matters  may  well  stay  as  they  are,  at  all 
events  for  the  present.     Apart  from  the  fact  that  the  council  in  most  cases 
lends  the  money  which  the  vestries  seek  to  borrow,  and  thus  gives  them 
the  benefit  of  its  superior  credit,  it  is  well  that,  so  far  as  possible,  the  cur- 
rency of  loans  for  similar  objects  should  be  alike,  and  the  administration 
uniform  throughout  the  whole  of  London.     The  principles  of  limitation 
which  we  have  suggested  as  applicable  to  borrowing  by  the  central  body 
should  therefore  be  made  applicable  to  local  borrowing. 

The  questions  of  rating  and  assessment  remain,  and  are  of  the  highest 
importance.  There  is  much  reason  for  thinking  that  they  should  not  be 
left  as  entirely  as  they  are  at  present  to  the  local  authorities.  Assessments 
vary  a  good  deal  between  the  different  localities,  as  well  as  within  them, 
and  the  movement  in  the  direction  of  uniformity  of  rating  strongly  points 
to  uniformity  of  assessment  as  its  basis,  which  the  present  arrangements 
for  assessments  cannot  be  said  to  secure.  Local  knowledge  and  experience 
are,  no  doubt,  necessary  for  the  purpose,  but  they  should  be  associated 
with  some  representation  of  the  central  authority,  so  as  to  secure  uniform- 
ity throughout  the  metropolitan  area. 

We  cannot  conclude  without  expressing  our  sense  of  indebtedness  to  our 
secretary,  Mr.  Gleadowe.  He  has  brought  the  quickest  and  readiest  in- 
telligence to  the  discharge  of  his  task,  and  he  has  added  to  this  natural  en- 
dowment an  assiduity  and  industry  commanding  our  highest  admiration. 
We  are  satisfied  that  our  labors  would  have  been  more  prolonged  and  more 
difficult  had  we  not  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  his  assistance. 

All  which  we  humbly  submit  to  Your  Majesty's  gracious  consideration. 

LEONARD  H.  COUETNEY. 
FAEEEE. 

EOBEET  D.  HOLT. 

G.  E.  Y.  GLEADOWE,  Secretary.  EDWAED  OEFOED  SMITH. 

August  7,  1894. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abattoirs,  municipal,  in  Glasgow,  134 ;  in 
Manchester,  156 ;  in  other  towns,  211. 

Aberdeen,  affected  by  Scotch  municipal 
reform  act  of  1833,  75 ;  gas-supply,  203. 

Activities,  social,  of  British  towns,  194- 
221. 

Aldermen,  how  chosen,  27 ;  qualifications 
for,  29,  appendix  I;  promoted  coun- 
cilors, 53,  56 ;  election  of,  56 ;  long  ser- 
vice, 56 ;  character  of  aldermanic  rank, 
57 ;  of  London  County  Council,  247. 

Alexandria,  assuming  Western  forme,  11. 

Allan,  Dr.,  on  epidemic  hospitals,  90. 

Amalgamation  of  London,  257-262,  ap- 
pendix III. 

Ambulance  service,  London,  302. 

American  cities,  rapid  growth  of,  1 ;  les- 
sons from  London's  experience,  320, 
321. 

American  mayors  and  councils,  62. 

Analysts,  public,  211. 

Appointing  power,  not  vested  in  mayors, 
60. 

Appointments,  32,  65,  66 ;  in  Glasgow,  79. 

Area  of  Glasgow,  70 ;  of  Manchester,  146 ; 
of  Salford,  146;  of  Birmingham,  191. 

Areas,  various,  of  London,  231-234. 

Art^gallery,  municipal,  of  Glasgow,  136 ; 
of  Manchester,  165;  of  Birmingham, 
189 ;  of  other  towns,  218. 

Artisans'  Dwellings  Act  in  Birmingham, 
178. 

Assembly-rooms,  municipal,  of  Manches- 
ter, 160. 

Assessment,  35. 

Assessor  of  Glasgow,  80. 

Asylums  Board.  Metropolitan,  301. 

Asylums,  lunatic,  London,  302. 

Athens,  recent  progress,  11. 

Athletic  tendency,  213. 

Auditors,  32,  65. 

Bailies,  Scotch,  76 ;  functions  of,  in  Glas- 
gow, 78. 

Ballot  system,  53 ;  introduced  in  election 
of  vestries,  255. 

Barking,  sewage  outfall,  258 ;  sewage  ef- 
fluent, 274. 

Baths,  public,  in  Glasgow,  108 ;  in  Man- 
chester, 161;  in  Birmingham,  186-188; 
beginnings  of,  in  England,  187;  open- 
air  summer,  187 ;  in'  various  British 
towns,  214 ;  in  London,  303. 

Belfast,  council,  63 ;  gas-supply,  203. 

Belgium's  growth  of  town  population, 
16, 17. 

Belgrade,  progress  of,  11. 

Berlin,  population  of,  16 ;  sewage-farms, 
273 ;  workmen's  trains,  293 ;  police  sys- 
tem, 314. 

Bethnal  Green,  housing  scheme,  289-291. 

"Betterment"  principle,  not  employed, 
126 ;  proposed  in  London,  286,  287. 


Binney,  Mr.,  engineer  of  London  county, 
on  sewage  disposal,  273;  on  London 
water-supply,  276-278. 

Birkenhead,  public  baths,  214;  free  li- 
brary, 218. 

Birmingham,  chapter  on,  168-193 ;  popu- 
lation of,  14;  elections,  49,  60;  council, 
63;  per  capita  water-supply,  115;  free 
library,  218 ;  municipal  debt,  318. 

Blackburn  free  library,  218. 

Blackpool's  direct  operation  of  tram 
lines,  207 ;  electric  lighting,  208. 

Board  of  Works,  Metropolitan,  233. 

Bolton,  water-supply  of,  197 ;  gas-supply, 
203 ;  public  baths,  214 ;  free  library,  218. 

Booth,  Charles,  investigations  of,  in  Lon- 
don, 288,  311. 

Boroughs,  "pocket,"  23;  rise  of  British, 
20. 

Boston  (U.  8.  A.),  Fire  Department  of, 
compared  with  Glasgow's,  113;  with 
London's,  317 ;  consolidation,  258. 

Boston  (England)  municipal  dock,  210. 

Boundaries,  extension  of,  Glasgow,  70; 
Manchester,  146;  Birmingham,  192;  va- 
rious, Of  London,  231-234. 

Bradford,  recent  incorporation,  14 ;  elec- 
tions, 49;  water-supply,  196;  gas-sup-, 
ply,  203 ;  sanitary  and  housing  reforms, 
216;  free  library,  218 ;  techuical  schools, 
220. 

Bridges  in  London,  237,  285. 

Brighton,  free  library,  218 ;  electric  light- 
ing, 208. 

Bristol,  uncontested  elections,  48;  gas- 
supply,  203 ;  docks  and  harbor,  209 ;  free 
library,  218. 

British  towns,  social  activities  of,  194- 
221;  rise  of,  20-37. 

Brooklyn,  in  comparison  with  Manches- 
ter, 146;  Fire  Department  compared 
with  London's,  317. 

Bryce,  James,  312. 

Bucharest,  progress  of,  11. 

Budapest,  recent  development,  11, 17. 

Budget,  municipal,  35. 

Building  in  London  suburbs,  292. 

Building  regulations  of  London,  290. 

Buiice,  Mr.,  historian  of  Birmingham, 
179. 

Burial  boards,  213.   See  also  cemeteries. 

Burnley  electric  lighting,  208. 

Burns,  John,  247. 

Burslem  technical  schools,  220. 

Buxton,  Charles,  London  reform  bill,  238. 

Cable  street  railways,  Glasgow,  131. 
Cairo,  assuming  Western  forms,  11. 
Cambridge,  election  of  1893,  58 ;  electric 

lighting,  208 ;  free  library,  218. 
Canal-boats,  municipal,  of  Birmingham, 

186. 
Candidates  for  council,  47. 


379 


380 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


Canterbury's  sewage  works,  199. 

Cardiff,  uucoutested  elections,  48 ;  water- 
supply,  196 ;  docks,  209 ;  free  library,  218. 

Carrlck,  John,  on  Glasgow  housing,  99 ; 
master  of  public  works,  125, 126. 

Cemeteries,  municipal,  of  Manchester, 
158, 159 ;  of  Birmingham,  186 ;  of  other 
towns,  213. 

Central  government,  relation  to  munici- 
palities, 68. 

Chamberlain ,  Joseph,  mayor  of  Birming- 
ham, 174,  175,  176,  178,  179,  181,  182, 183, 
191,  262. 

Chamberlain  of  Glasgow,  80. 

Character  of  councilors,  53. 

Charitv  commissioners  and  London  tech- 
nical schools,  312. 

Charters  of  incorporation,  14 ;  early  mu- 
nicipal, 21 ;  how  granted,  36;  early,  of 
Glasgow,  73 ;  of  Birmingham,  169, 173. 

Chemical  treatment  of  sewage  in  Glas- 
gow, 123. 

Chemnitz  technical  schools,  220. 

Chicago,  as  a  self-made  town,  71 ;  in  com- 
parison with  Manchester,  146 ;  Fire  De- 
partment compared  withLondon's,  317. 

Chorley's  sewage  works,  198. 

City  and  Guilds  of  London,  technical  ed- 
ucation, 311 ;  police,  313. 

City  government,  definition  of,  3. 

City  life,  inevitable  for  majority,  2 ;  evils 
remediable,  3 ;  its  possibilities  of  good, 
3,  9,  10. 

City  Of  London,  222,  228-232,  235,  242;  its 
future,  259-261 ;  purchase  of  parks,  306. 

City,  the  ideal,  9. 

Classes,  night,  in  science,  220. 

Cleansing,  public,  in  Glasgow,  93-98;  in 
London,  300. 

Clerk,  town,  32. 

Clyde,  improvement,  72;  Navigation 
Trust,  electorate  for,  41;  Navigation 
Trust,  142-144. 

Code,  municipal,  20-37,  appendix  I. 

Collectivism,  municipal,  6-8 ;  collectivist 
trend,  224. 

Commission,  royal,  on  municipal  reform. 
1833-35,  26 ;  of  1893-94,  on  London  unifi- 
cation, 257-262,  appendix  III ;  of  1882- 
1884,  on  London  drainage,  269. 

Committees,  standing,  32 ;  of  Manchester 
council,  147-151. 

Common  lodging-house  inspection  in 
Glasgow,  86. 

Companies,  livery,  of  London,  226-228. 

Condition  of  London  in  1855,  235. 

Consolidated  municipal  code  of  1882,  28- 
38,  appendix  I. 

Constantinople,  becoming  Westernized, 
11. 

Contract  system,  in  Glasgow,  124 ;  in  Lon- 
don municipal  work,  315. 

Corporate  abuses  in  eighteenth  century, 
23. 

Corrupt  practices,  34;  in  London  elec- 
tions, 246. 

Council,  of  Glasgow,  76,  79;  of  Man- 
chester, 147-151;  of  Birmingham,  174. 
See  also  Appendix  I. 

Councilors,  qualifications  for,  29,  ap- 
pendix I ;  character  of  men,  53 ;  not 
salaried,  55 ;  character  of  county  coun- 
cilors of  London,  246-250. 


Councils,  municipal,  27;  their  powers, 
30 ;  their  structure,  46 ;  nominations 
for,  46,  47;  English  and  American,  54, 
55;  committees,  61 ;  size  of  British,  63 ; 
government  by,  63,  64. 

Counties,  36,  37. 

County  Council,  London,  framework  of, 
241,  242;  as  employer,  315,  316. 

County  government  in  England,  240. 

County  of  London,  37,  241 ;  boundaries, 
233. 

Courtney,  Leonard  H.,  258. 

Courts,  police,  35. 

Coventry,  public  baths,  etc.,  214. 

Cremation  of  garbage,  in  Glasgow,  96 ;  in 
Manchester,  154 ;  in  Birmingham,  184. 

Crematories  for  infected  articles,  Glas- 
gow, 92. 

Crossness,  sewage  outfall,  268;  sewage 
precipitation  works,  271. 

Croydon,  growth  of,  297. 

Cumulative  voting  for  school-boards,  40, 


Dairies,  inspector  of,  in  Glasgow,  87. 

Damascus,  becoming  modernized,  11. 

Darlington's  se  wage  works,  199. 

Death-rate,  lower  in  ideal  city  than  in 
country,  10;  reduced  in  Birmingham, 
185, 186 ;  of  London,  302. 

Debt,  of  Birmingham,  192,  193;  of  Lon- 
don, 318. 

Density,  in  Scotch  towns,  71 ;  in  Glasgow, 
Liverpool,  83 ;  in  London,  294 ;  relative, 
in  metropolis,  298. 

Departments,  municipal,  of  Manchester, 
how  organized,  151. 

Derby  free  library,  218. 

Diphtheria  in  London,  302. 

Disinfection  work  in  Glasgow,  92. 

Disposal  of  refuse  in  Glasgow,  96. 

District  councils,  257. 

Districts  and  parishes  of  London,  236, 
237,  252, 253 ;  future,  259,  260. 

Diversions  in  early  manufacturing 
towns,  25. 

Divisions  of  London,  257. 

Docks,  municipal,  etc.,  208-210;  of  Lon- 
don, 265,  314,  315. 

Drainage  question  in  Glasgow,  122-124 ; 
in  Manchester,  153 ;  system  of  Birming- 
ham, 182-184. 

Drainage  works  in  various  towns,  198, 
199 ;  a  modern  problem,  226 ;  system  of 
London,  235,  263-275. 

Dublin,  council,  63 ;  gas-supply,  203 ;  mu- 
nicipal tenements,  216. 

Dundee,  affected  by  reform  act  of  1833, 
75 ;  gas-supply,  203. 

Edinburgh,  elections,  50 ;  council,  63 ;  re- 
form act  of  1833,  75 ;  referred  to,  194 ; 
gas-supply,  203. 

Education,  elementary,  in  Glasgow,  140; 
technical,  in  Glasgow,  140 ;  technical, 
in  Manchester,  162-165;  technical,  in 
Birmingham,  190;  elementary,  in  Lon- 
don, 307-310 ;  technical,  in  London,  310- 
313. 

Education  act  of  1870,  219. 

Elan  as  source  of  Birmingham  water- 
supply,  177. 

Elcho,  Lord,  London  reform  bill,  238. 


INDEX 


381 


Elections,  municipal,  33 ;  un  contested,  48, 
49 ;  of  1894, 51 ;  or  London  Council,  1889, 
245 ;  1892,  250 ;  London  Council  election 
expenditures,  246 ;  London  vestries, 
253 ;  London  school  Board,  308,  309. 

Electorates,  municipal  and  other,  39. 

Electors,  number  on  Birmingham  roll, 
43 ;  number  on  Glasgow  lists,  41,  42 ; 
number  on  Leeds  roll,  43. 

Electric  lighting  and  power  works,  mu- 
nicipal, in  Glasgow,  118,  121 ;  in  Man- 
chester, 155 ;  in  London,  304 ;  street  rail- 
ways in  Glasgow,  131;  underground 
railways  in  London,  299. 

Eligibility  for  London  County  Council, 
244. 

Epidemics,  at  beginning  of  nineteenth 
century,  25 ;  inspection  in  Glasgow,  81- 
85 ;  hospitals  in  Glasgow,  88-91 ;  .preven- 
tion of,  in  Glasgow,  88-92 ;  in  London, 
301. 

European  city  transformations,  10. 

Evening  schools  in  London,  310. 

Examination  system  not  in  use,  79. 

Factory  system,  rise  of,  24. 

Family  home,  municipal,  in  Glasgow, 
107. 

Fares,  workmen's,  on  Glasgow  street 
railways,  128. 

Farms,  municipal,  for  refuse,  96,  97 ; 
sewage,  of  Birmingham,  183, 184. 

Fairer,  Sir  Thomas,  258. 

Federative  principle  of  metropolitan 
government,  258-260. 

Ferries,  municipal,  in  Glasgow,  143 ;  free, 
at  Woolwich,  285. 

Fertilizers,  from  Glasgow  refuse,  96 ; 
sludge  as,  in  Glasgow,  123 ;  made  from 
refuse  in  Manchester,  154 ;  made  from 
refuse  at  Birmingham,  184;  London 
sludge  not  available  as,  270,  271. 

Filtration  of  sewage  in  Glasgow,  123, 
274;  in  Manchester,  153;  of  London 
water,  278,  279;  of  Hamburg  water- 
supply,  279. 

Finances,  of  Glasgow,  144 ;  of  Birming- 
ham, 193 ;  of  London,  318. 

Fire  Department,  of  Glasgow,  110,  113, 
114;  of  London,  317. 

Fire  departments  and  gravity  system, 
196. 

Firth,  J.  F.  B.,  London  reform  bill,  238. 

Florence,  population  growth,  17. 

Food  inspection,  in  Glasgow,  82-87;  in 
Manchester,  156 ;  in  English  towns,  211. 

Fowler,  Henry,  M.  P.,  local  government 
reforms,  1893-94,  254. 

France,  population,  urban  and  rural,  15. 

Franchise,  elective,  acts  of  1832-35,  27; 
qualifications  for,  29,  appendix  I ;  in 
practice,  38-46;  lodgers,  43;  English 
municipal,  compared  with  Scotch,  42, 
43 ;  English  municipal,  compared  with 
American,  45 ;  in  Glasgow,  77. 

Franchises,  of  street  railways,  204-208 ;  in 
London,  243, 244 ;  of  London  tramways, 
298,  299. 

Freedom  of  nomination,  52. 

Freemen,  36. 

Fuel  gas,  in  Glasgow,  121 ;  in  Manchester, 
155;  in  other  towns,  202. 

Functions,  classification  of  municipal, 


7,  8, 195 ;  of  municipal  government,  29, 
30,  appendix  I. 

Fyfe,  Peter,  chief  sanitary  inspector, 
Glasgow,  82. 

Galleries  and  museums,  218. 

Garbage,  removal  of,  in  Glasgow,  94 ;  in 
Manchester,  153,  154;  in  Birmiughaiu, 
184;  in  London,  252,  300. 

Gas  as  fuel,  in  Glasgow,  120, 121 ;  in  Man- 
chester, 155 ;  in  other  towns,  202. 

Gas-companies  of  London,  304. 

Gas,  municipal,  199-203. 

Gas-supply,  of  Glasgow,  118-121,  203; 
Manchester,  154-155,  203;  Birmingham, 
175-176,  203;  Liverpool,  Dublin,  Shef- 
field, Bristol,  Hull,  Belfast,  Edmburgh- 
Leith,  Leeds,  Bradford,  Nottingham, 
Bolton,  and  various  towns,  203;  Lon- 
don, 264,  304. 

Germany,  growth  of  town  population,  16. 

Genoa,  population  growth,  17. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  on  London  guilds,  230. 

Glasgow,  chapter  on,  69-144;  voters  for 
various  purposes,  39-41 ;  elections,  50 ; 
council,  63;  council  and  people,  64: 
size  and  rank,  69,  70;  as  a  self-made 
town,  71,  72;  harbor,  166;  compared 
with  Birmingham,  169. 

Government,  Local,  Act  of  1888,  36. 

"  Greater  London,"  222  et  seq.,  234,  295. 

Greenock's  municipal  tenements,  216. 

Ground-owners  of  London,  287. 

Growth  of  town  population,  5. 

Guildhall  of  London,  229. 

Guilds,  merchants'  and  trades',  in  old 
English  towns,  20-22 ;  of  Glasgow,  73, 
76,  77 ;  survival  of.  in  London,  225,  226 ; 
of  London,  list  of,  226-228;  as  govern- 
ing City  of  London,  229;  of  London, 
their  reform,  230;  of  London,  parks, 
306;  of  London,  and  technical  educa- 
tion, 31 1. 

Gymnasiums  of  Manchester,  161. 

Halifax,  free  library,  218;  public  baths, 
214. 

Hamburg  water  filtration,  279. 

Hanley,  public  baths,  214 ;  technical 
schools,  220. 

Harbor  works,  etc.,  208-210. 

Harcourt,  Sir  William,  London  reform 
bill,  238,  239. 

Health  officer  of  Glasgow,  80;  depart- 
ment of  Glasgow,  81 ;  department  of 
Manchester,  158;  department  of  Bir- 
mingham, 185;  administration  in  Lon- 
don, 300-302. 

Hjghways,  improved,  210. 

Hill,  Dr.  Alfred,  medical  health  officer  of 
Birmingham,  185. 

Holland,  growth  of  town  population, 
16-17. 

Holt,  Robert  D.,  258. 

Hospitals  for  infectious  diseases,  in  Glas- 
gow, 88-91 ;  in  English  towns,  217. 

House  of  Lords,  and  London  water-sup- 
ply, 282;  and  "  betterment "  principle, 
286,  287. 

Housing  conditions,  in  Glasgow,  84,  99 ; 
in  Manchester,  158 ;  municipal  houses 
in  Birmingham,  182;  housing  question, 
214-216 ;  reforms  in  Sheffield,  216 ;  act  of 


382 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


1890,  216 ;  in  London,  288;  act  of  1890  in 
London,  288, 289 ;  of  London  population, 
297. 

Huddersfleld,  election  of  1893,  50;  gas- 
supply,  203 ;  direct  operation  of  train 
lines,  206 ;  electric  lighting,  208 ;  public 
baths,  214;  municipal  tenements,  216; 
technical  schools,  220. 

Hull,  water-supply,  197 ;  gas-supply,  203 ; 
harbor  works,  210. 

Hydrants,  fire,  in  London,  317,  318. 

Hydraulic  power  works,  of  Glasgow,  118 ; 
of  Manchester,  156. 

Ideal  city,  the,  9,  223. 

Improvement  scheme,  of  Glasgow,  101, 
102;  of  Birmingham.  178, 179. 

Incorporation,  or  chief  English  towns,  13, 
14 ;  of  Birmingham,  169, 173. 

Indebtedness,  growth  of  municipal,  8; 
of  Birmingham,  192,  193;  for  water- 
works, 197;  for  drainage  works,  198; 
for  gas  works,  204 ;  for  street  railways, 
207 ;  for  harbor  works,  210 ;  for  parks, 
213;  for  elementary  school  buildings, 
219 ;  of  London,  318. 

Individualism  versus  socialism,  7,  8. 

Industrial  era,  4;  life  of  Glasgow,  72; 
schools,  217. 

Industries,  of  Manchester,  163 ;  promoted 
by  technical  schools,  221. 

Infectious  diseases,  inspectors  in  Glas- 
gow, 82-85 ;  isolation  of,  88 ;  hospitals 
for,  217 ;  in  London,  301. 

Inspection  in  Health  Department  of 
Glasgow,  81,  88. 

Insurance,  municipal,  proposed,  in  Lon- 
don, 318. 

Interception  of  sludge  from  London  sew- 
ers, 269. 

Irish  municipal  reform  bill  compared 
with  English  and  Scotch,  75,  76. 

Italian  cities,  new  improvements,  11. 

Italy,  growth  of  town  population,  17. 

Jerusalem,  becoming  modernized,  11. 
"  Judicial  London  "  boundaries,  233. 
Justice,  police  courts,  35. 

Kidderminster,  public  baths,  214;  tech- 
nical schools,  220. 

Labor  and  London  Council,  316. 

Labor  candidates,  51. 

Lady  inspectors  of  Glasgow  tenements, 
81,  87. 

Laundries,  municipal,  of  Glasgow,  109, 
110. 

Leamington's  sewage  works,  198. 

Leeds,  a  modern  town,  14 ;  elections,  49, 
50 ;  council,  63 ;  progress  of,  194 ;  water- 
supply,  197;  gas-supply,  203;  free  li- 
brary, 218 ;  technical  schools,  220. 

Leicester,  water-supply  of,  197;  sewage 
works,  198 ;  gas-supply,  203 ;  public 
baths,  214. 

Lewis,  Sir  George  Cornewall,  London 
reform  bill,  238. 

Leyton,  growth  of,  296. 

Libraries,  free  public,  in  Glasgow,  137, 
138 ;  in  Manchester,  161, 162 ;  in  Birming- 
ham, 188, 189 ;  in  other  provincial  towns, 
217,  218 ;  in  London,  303. 


Lighting,  public,  in  Glasgow,  112, 113 ;  in 
Scotland,  statistics  of,  201, 202 ;  electric, 
in  Glasgow,  121 ;  in  Manchester,  155 ; 
in  various  British  towns,  208. 

Liverpool,  a  modern  town,  14;  election 
contests,  49;  electionof  1893,50;  council, 
63 ;  as  a  self-made  town,  71 ;  density  of 
population,  83 ;  per  capita  water-supply, 
115 ;  docks,  166,  208,  209 ;  policy  regard- 
ing Manchester  canal,  166;  progress, 
194 ;  water-supply,  196 ;  gas-supply,  203 ; 
street  railways,  204 ;  direct  operation  of 
tram  lines,  207;  parks,  212 ;  public  baths, 
214 ;  housing  reforms,  215 ;  model  tene- 
ments, 215 ;  free  library,  218 ;  suburban 
tendency,  296 ;  municipal  debt,  318. 

Livery  companies  of  London,  226-228. 

Local  Government  Act,  of  1888, 36, 240 ;  of 
1894,  254. 

Local  Government  Board,  68. 

Loch  Katrine,  source  of  Glasgow's  water- 
supply,  115. 

Lodgers'  franchise,  39,  43,  44;  in  Glas- 
gow tenements,  86. 

Lodging-house  inspectors  of  Glasgow, 
81-86. 

Lodging-houses,  municipal,  in  Glasgow, 
105-108 ;  in  other  towns,  217  ;  in  London, 
303. 

London, population,  14;  County  Council, 
37  ;  rank  as  a  British  town,  69 ;  density 
of  population,  83;  government  and 
metropolitan  problems,  222-321;  pro- 
gressive program,  appendix  II ;  unifi- 
cation of,  appendix  III. 

Lord  Mayor  of  London,  229. 

Lords  in  London  County  Council,  247. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  247. 

Lunatic  asylums,  London,  302. 

Lyons,  growth  of  population,  15. 

Magistrates,  municipal,  35. 

"  Main-drainage  "  London,  272. 

Main  thorouglifares  of  London,  283-288. 

Malthus,  economic  period  of,  24. 

Manchester,  chapter  on,  145-167 ;  popula- 
tion of,  13 ;  election  contests,  49 ;  elec- 
tion of  1893. 50 ;  council,  63 ;  per  capita 
water-supply,  115  ;  compared  with  Bir- 
mingham, 168,  169;  electric  lighting, 
208 ;  canal,  209 ;  free  library,  218 ;  muni- 
cipal debt,  318 ;  suburban  tendency,  296. 

Markets,  municipal,  of  Glasgow,  133-135 ; 
of  Manchester,  156;  of  Birmingham, 
192 ;  of  various  towns,  211 ;  of  London, 
230,  264,  314. 

Marseilles,  growth  of  population,  15. 

Master  of  works  in  Glasgow,  125. 

Mayors,  how  chosen,  27 ;  qualifications 
for,  29,  appendix  I;  whence  selected, 
53,  58 ;  as  presiding  officers  of  council, 
59;  reeligible,  59;  as  justices  of  the 
peace,  59 ;  ex-mayors  in  the  councils, 
60;  have  no  veto,  60;  have  no  appoint- 
ing power,  60 ;  English  and  American, 
compared,  61 ;  American,  their  power, 
62 ;  American,  as  dictators,  62 ;  local, 
for  London  districts,  260. 

Medical  officer  of  health,  Glasgow,  80. 

Medieval  English  towns,  20-24. 

Merchants'  House  of  Glasgow,  73,  76, 77. 

Merit,  appointments  for,  66. 

Metropolis  Management  Act  of  1855,  236. 


INDEX 


383 


Metropolitan  Asylums  Board,  301. 
Metropolitan  Board  of  Works,  233,  236, 

237,  242 ;  its  drainage  system,  267-269 ; 

street  reforms,  283,  284. 
Metropolitan  district,  233. 
Metropolitan  police,  313. 
Metropolitan  police  district,  boundaries, 

234. 
Metropolitan  tasks  and  problems,  263- 

321. 

Milan,  population  growth,  17. 
Milk-inspection,  in  Glasgow,  87;  In  other 

towns,  211. 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  London  reform  bill, 

238. 
Minority  representation,  London  School 

Board,  308. 

"  Moderates  "  in  London  Council,  251. 
Motives  in  town  improvements,  194, 195. 
Municipal  Code,  English,  20-37,  appen- 
dix I. 
Municipal  government,  British  ideal  of, 

243. 

Municipal  ideals,  223. 
Municipal  reform  acts,  20-37. 
Muntz,  P.  H.,  of  Birmingham,  170-173. 
Museums  and  galleries,  218. 
Museums  in  Birmingham,  189. 
Music,  municipal,  in  Manchester,  165 ;  in 

London  parks,  307. 

Naples,  modernized,  11 ;  growth  of  popu- 
lation, 17. 

Navigation  of  Thames,  277. 

Navigation  Trust,  Clyde,  142, 144. 

Newcastle-on-Tyne,  election  of  1893,  50; 
harbor  works,  210 ;  free  library,  218. 

New  York,  nature  of  growth,  71;  tene- 
ments, 147;  consolidation,  258;  refer- 
ence to  Tammany  Hall,  265;  Fire  De- 
partment compared  with  London's,  317. 

Nfcol,  James,  chamberlain  of  Glasgow, 
114. 

Night  inspection  of  tenement-houses  in 
Glasgow,  85,  86. 

Nominations,  33 ;  for  council,  46,  47 ;  for 
London  Council,  245. 

Non-acceptance  penalties.  33. 

Non-rate-payment  disqualifies,  41,  42. 

Nottingham,  a  modern  town,  14,  194; 
elections,  50 ;  water-supply  of,  197 ;  gas- 
supply,  203;  parks,  etc.,  212, 213;  public 
baths,  214 ;  free  library,  218  ;  technical 
schools,  220. 

Nuisance  inspection,  in  Glasgow,  81-85 ; 
in  Birmingham,  185. 

Officers,  how  appointed,  65. 

Oldham,  sewage  works,  198 ;  gas-supply, 
203 ;  electric  lighting,  208 ;  free  library, 
218 ;  technical  schools,  220. 

Omnibus  system,  in  Glasgow,  132 ;  in  Lon- 
don, 294,  295,  298. 

One-room  families  in  Glasgow,  84. 

Operation,  municipal,  of  street  railways, 
in  Glasgow,  206;  Huddersfleld,  206; 
Blackpool,  207 ;  Plymouth,  207. 

Overcrowding,  at  beginning  of  nine- 
teenth century,  24,  25 ;  in  Glasgow,  83- 
86,  98,  99. 

Owen,  Robert,  25. 

Palermo,  population  growth,  17. 


Paris,  growth  of  population,  15;  tene- 
ments, 147 ;  reconstructions,  178 ;  police 
system,  314 ;  small  denomination  bonds, 
319. 

Parishes,  of  London,  232,  235-237 ;  rural, 
reform  of,  254. 

Parks,  of  Glasgow,  135, 136;  Manchester, 
159,  160;  Birujinghain,  186;  Liverpool, 
Sheffield,  Leeds,  Nottingham,  212 ;  gen- 
eral park  movement  in  British  towns, 
212,  213 ;  London,  305-307. 

Parliamentary  boroughs  of  London, 
boundaries,  233. 

Parochial  boards,  how  elected,  39,  40. 

Parties  in  municipal  elections,  51,  52. 

Paupers,  disfranchised,  30;  of  London, 
256. 

Paving,  street,  in  Glasgow,  126 ;  in  Eng- 
lish towns,  211 ;  in  London,  252,  284. 

Peabody  Fund  houses  in  London,  291, 
292. 

Penalties  for  non-acceptance  of  office,  33. 

Pensions,  of  Glasgow  police,  112 ;  of  pub- 
lic employees  in  London,  316. 

Permanence  of  tenure,  54. 

Perth  affected  by  Reform  Act  of  1833,  75. 

Philadelphia  Fire  Department  compared 
with  London's,  317. 

Playgrounds,  public,  in  Glasgow,  136; 
in  various  towns,  213 ;  in  London  parks, 
307. 

Plural  voting,  40;  for  poor-law  guardians, 
abolished,  256. 

Plymouth,  direct  operation  of  tram  lines, 
207 ;  public  baths,  214 ;  free  library,  218. 

"  Pocket "  boroughs,  23. 

Police,  control,  36 ;  control  and  support 
of,  67 ;  force,  efficiency  of,  67 ;  force  of 
Glasgow,  110-112;  courts  of  Glasgow, 
111 ;  "  Police  London  "  boundaries,  234 ; 
police  of  London,  264 ;  control  in  Lon- 
don, 313,  314 ;  question  in  Paris,  Berlin, 
and  Vienna,  314. 

Police  magistrates,  35. 

Politics,  in  municipal  nominations,  51, 
52 ;  in  London  municipal  elections,  250. 

Polling  system,  53. 

Pollution  of  Thames,  274. 

Polytechnic  institutes  of  London,  312. 

Poor-law  system,  256 ;  central  board, 
London,  301. 

Poor-rates  in  Scotland,  40. 

Poor-relief  in  Glasgow,  138, 141. 

Population,  urban,  in  Scotland,  12 ;  Eng- 
land, 13-15;  France,  15,  16;  Germany, 
16 ;  Holland,  16, 17  ;  Belgium,  1,  16,  17  ; 
Italy,  17 ;  Austria,  17 ;  America,  18 ;  of 
Manchester,  13,  146;  Birmingham,  14; 
Paris,  15;  Lyons,  15;  Marseilles,  15; 
Berlin,  16;  Glasgow,  70,  71;  Salford, 
146;  London,  14,  234,  272;  decline  of, 
in  central  London  districts,  295. 

Portsmouth,  electric  lighting,  208;  free 
library,  218. 

Power,  hydraulic  and  electric,  in  Glas- 
gow, 118 ;  in  Manchester,  156. 

Precipitation  of  sewage,  in  Glasgow,  123, 
124 ;  in  Manchester,  153. 

Problems  of  London,  263-321. 

"  Progressives  "  in  London  Council,  251. 

Progressive  London  school  policy,  309. 

Provosts,  Scotch,  76;  functions  of,  in 
Glasgow,  78. 


384 


MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 


Public  control  of  water,  why  desirable, 

196. 
Public  works  in  Glasgow,  124-127. 

Qualifications,  for  councilors,  aldermen, 
and  mayors,  29,  30,  appendix  I;  for 
school-board  electors,  40;  for  munici- 
pal franchise,  29,  30,  appendix  I. 

Rate-payment,  as  a  qualification  for  vot- 
ing, 41,  42;  divided  in  Scotland,  42; 
advanced  by  landlords,  43 ;  falls  on  oc- 
cupier in  England,  42 ;  in  England,  com- 
pared with  American  local  taxes,  320. 

Rawlinson,  Sir  Robert,  on  London  sew- 
erage, 273. 

Reading-rooms  of  Manchester,  161, 162. 

Reconstruction  of  Bethnal  Green ,289-291. 

Reconstruction  work  in  Glasgow,  99-103. 

Reelections  the  rule,  54. 

Reform  acts,  municipal,  20-37 ;  parlia- 
mentary, of  1832,  25 ;  of  Scotch  burghs, 
74 ;  London  excluded,  224,  225. 

Reform  of  London  government,  238,  239. 

Refuse,  removal  of,  in  Glasgow,  93-95. 

Registrar-general's  metropolitan  dis- 
trict, 233. 

Registration  system,  52. 

Revenue  and  expenditure  (borough 
fund),  34,  35;  in  London,  319. 

Ricardo,  epoch  of,  24. 

Roads,  indebtedness  for,  210. 

Rochdale,  gas-supply,  203;  free  library  ,218. 

Rome,  modernized,  11 ;  growth  of  popu- 
lation, 17. 

Rosebery,  Lord,  chairman  of  London 
County  Council,  247. 

Rural  sanitary  districts,  14. 

Russell,  Dr.,  on  tenement-houses  of  Glas- 
gow, 84,  86. 

Russell,  Lord  John,  27, 173. 

Ryland,  Miss,  benefactor  of  Birming- 
ham, 186. 

Salford,  recent  incorporation,  14 ;  area 
and  population,  146;  municipal  tram- 
ways, 157;  ship  canal  and  docks,  167; 
sewage  works,  198;  gas-supply,  203; 
public  baths,  214 ;  free  library,  218. 

Sanitary  administration  of  Manchester, 
158. 

Sanitary  Department  of  Glasgow,  81. 

Sanitary  districts,  urban  and  rural,  14. 

Sanitary  housing  in  London,  290,  291. 

Sanitary  inspector,  chief,  of  Glasgow,  81, 
82. 

Sanitary  motives  in  government  of  Glas- 
gow, 80. 

Sanitary  reforms,  in  Birmingham,  185, 
186 ;  in  Bradford,  216." 

Sanitary  work  in  London,  300-302. 

Scarlet  fever  in  London,  301. 

Scavenging  in  Glasgow,  93. 

Schools,  in  Glasgow,  139,140;  industrial, 
217;  elementary,  219;  municipal  and 
technical,  219-221. 

School-boards,  election  of,  40;  in  Glas- 
gow, 138-140 ;  in  London,  233,  307-310. 

Science  and  Art  Department,  practical 
education,  312. 

Science  of  the  modern  city,  3,  6. 

Scotch,  population,  urban  and  rural,  12, 
13;  towns  reformed  (1833),  28;  electo- 


rates, 39 ;  poor-rates,  40 ;  municipal  re- 
form, 74;  reform  bill,  75,  76;  statistics 
of  public  lighting,  201, 202. 

Service,  municipal,  efficiency  of,  65,  66. 

Sewage  disposal  in  Glasgow,  122-124;  in 
Manchester,  153;  in  Birmingham,  183, 
184 ;  in  other  towns,  198, 199 ;  in  London, 
269-275. 

Sewage-farms,  of  Birmingham,  183, 184 ; 
of  Berlin  and  Birmingham,  273;  pro- 
posed for  London,  273-275. 

Sewage  nitration,  in  Glasgow,  123, 274 ;  in 
Manchester,  153. 

Sewage  question,  198, 199. 

Sewage  works,  of  Glasgow,  122-124;  of 
Manchester,  153;  of  Birmingham,  182, 
183;  of  Sheffield,  Salford,  OUlham, 
Chorley,  Leicester,  and  Leamington, 
198;  of  Stratford,  Wolverhampton, 
West  Bromwich,  Canterbury,  Tun- 
bridge  Wells,  and  Darlington,  199;  of 
London,  235,  237.  See  also  drainage. 

Sheffield,  recent  incorporation,  14 ;  elec- 
tions, 50 ;  council,  63 ;  general  progress, 
194;  waterworks,  197;  sewage  works, 
198 ;  gas-supply,  203 ;  street  railways, 
204,  205;  parks,  etc.,  212;  public  baths, 
214;  housing  and  street  reforms,  216; 
free  library,  218 ;  technical  schools,  220. 

Sheriffs,  35. 

Ship  canal  of  Manchester,  165-167. 

Ships,  training,  217. 

Slaughter-houses,  municipal,  of  Glas- 
gow, 134 ;  of  Manchester,  156. 

Sludge  as  fertilizer  in  Glasgow,  123. 

Sludge  steamers,  London  drainage  works, 
270. 

Slums,  self-disfranchised,  42;  vote  not 
exploited,  45;  of  Glasgow,  disfran- 
chised, 77;  development  of,  in  Glas- 
gow, 98. 

Smith,  Edward  O.,  258. 

Smith,  Llewellyn,  311. 

Social  activities  of  British  towns,  194-221. 

Socialism,  municipal,  6-8,  224. 

Socialist  candidates,  51. 

Sofia,  progress  of,  11. 

Southampton  docks,  209. 

Sprinkling  streets  in  Glasgow,  94. 

Steamers,  municipal,  on  Clyde,  143. 

Stockton  harbor  works,  210. 

Stoves,  gas,  rented  by  Glasgow,  121. 

Stratford-on-Avon  sewage  works,  199. 

Street  railways,  municipal,  of  Glasgow, 
127-133 ;  Manchester,  156, 157 ;  Birming- 
ham, 190-192;  London,  294,  295,  298; 
Birkenhead,  Blackburn,  Blackpool, 
Bootle,  Bradford,  Dundee,  Eccles, 
Greenock,  Huddersfleld,  Leeds,  New- 
castle, Oldham,  Plymouth,  Preston, 
South  Shields,  Sunderland,  205 ;  statis- 
tics of,  207 ;  debt,  207. 

Street  reforms  of  Glasgow,  103 ;  Birming- 
ham, 180;  Sheffield,  216;  London,  283- 
288;  Bethnal  Green  (London),  291. 

Streets,  condition  of,  in  early  part  of 
nineteenth  century,  25;  London,  235; 
cleaning,  of  London,  252, 300 ;  cleaning, 
in  Glasgow,  93-98 ;  watering,  in  Glas- 
gow, 93,  94;  lighting,  in  Glasgow,  112, 
113  ;  paving,  in  Glasgow,  126. 

Suburban  tendency,  in  Glasgow,  104; 
Birmingham,  192 ;  London,  292,  296. 


INDEX 


385 


Suburban  trains,  London,  and  continen- 
tal capitals,  293-295,  299. 

Subways  in  London,  304,  305. 

Sunday  opening  of  libraries  in  Birming- 
ham, 189. 

Sunderlaud  harbor  works,  210. 

Swansea  technical  schools,  220. 

Tammany  Hall,  a  London  parallel,  265. 

Taxation,  growth  of  municipal,  8 ;  reform 
in  London,  286. 

Technical  education,  in  Glasgow,  141; 
Manchester,  162-165 ;  Birmingham,  190 ; 
Bradford,  Burslem,  Chemnitz,  Hanley, 
Huddersfleld,  Kidderminster,  Leeds, 
Nottingham,  Oldham,  Sheffield,  Swan- 
sea, 220;  London,  310-313. 

Technical  municipal  schools,  219-221. 

Telephones  in  Manchester,  158. 

Tenement-houses,  in  Scotland,  84 ;  night 
inspection  of,  in  Glasgow,  83 ;  women 
as  inspectors  of,  in  Glasgow,  81,  87; 
population  of,  in  Glasgow,  83,  84;  re- 
forms, Glasgow,  103. 

Tenements, "  model,"  in  London,  291, 292. 

Tenements,  municipally  owned,  in  Glas- 
gow, 103, 105 ;  Birmingham,  182 ;  Liver- 
pool, 215 ;  Greenock,  216 ;  Huddersfleld, 
216 ;  Dublin,  216. 

Thames,  as  a  London  drain,  266 ;  as  water- 
supply  of  London,  275-283. 

Thames  bridges,  ferries,  and  tunnels  at 
London,  237,  285. 

Thirlmere  (Lake)  as  source  of  Manches- 
ter water-supply,  152. 

Thoroughfares  of  London,  283-288. 

Ticketed  houses  in  Glasgow,  85,  8C. 

Tottenham,  growth  of,  297. 

Town  clerk,  32 ;  his  functions,  64 ;  of  Glas- 
gow, 80. 

Town  hall,  of  Glasgow,  127 ;  of  Manches- 
ter, 160. 

Town  life,  old  English,  21,  22. 

Trades'  House  of  Glasgow,  73,  76, 77. 

Train,  George  Francis,  introduced  street 
railways,  127, 190. 

Training  ships,  217. 

Tramways,  in  Glasgow,  127-133;  Manches- 
ter, 156, 157 ;  Salford,  157 ;  Birmingham, 
190-192;  municipal,  in  various  towns, 
204-208 ;  London,  294,  295,  298. 

Transformations  of  European  cities,  10. 

Transit  and  housing  in  London,  293-295, 
297. 

Treasurers,  32. 

Tunbridge  Wells  sewage  works,  199. 

Tunnel,  Blackwall  (London),  285. 

Turin,  population  growth,  17. 

Two-room  families  in  Glasgow,  84. 

Tynemouth  free  library,  218. 

Typhus,  from  milk,  87 ;  in  Glasgow,  88 ; 
in  London,  302.  • 

Uncontested  elections  in  various  towns, 

48,  49. 


Underground  railways,  in  Glasgow,  132 ; 
iu  London,  299. 

Unification  of  London,  257-262,  appen- 
dix III. 

Urban  sanitary  districts,  14. 

Vaccination,  public,  in  Glasgow,  83. 

Vestries,  of  London,  232,  238;  functions 
of,  252;  elections  of,  253;  reform  of, 
1894,  255 ;  as  monopolies,  265. 

Vienna,  new  development,  17 ;  police  sys- 
tem, 314. 

Vine,  Sir  J.  E.  Somers,  on  municipal  code, 
28-29 ;  on  Manchester,  145. 

Wards,  how  arranged,  32 ;  residence  in, 
not  required,  58 ;  of  Manchester,  147. 

Wash-houses,  disinfection,  in  Glasgow, 
91 ;  public,  in  Glasgow,  109 ;  municipal, 
in  Birmingham,  188;  municipal,  in  va- 
rious towns.  214 ;  public,  in  London, 
303. 

Water-companies  of  London,  279,  280. 

Water  Department  of  Glasgow,  how  or- 
ganized, 118. 

Watering  streets,  Glasgow,  94. 

Water-rates  of  Glasgow,  116. 

Water-supply,  of  Glasgow,  114-118;  per 
capita,  of  Glasgow,  Liverpool,  Man- 
chester, and  Birmingham,  115;  Man- 
chester, 152, 153 ;  Birmingham,  176 ;  in 
general,  195 ;  Liverpool,  Bradford,  196 ; 
Cardiff,  Bolton,  Leeds,  Hull,  Notting- 
ham, Leicester,  197;  London,  264,  275- 
283. 

Waterworks,  indebtedness  for,  197, 198. 

Webb,  Sidney,  310. 

Wells,  contaminated,  in  Birmingham, 
185. 

West  Bromwich's  sewage  works,  199. 

West  Ham,  growth  of,  297. 

Willesden,  growth  of,  296. 

Wolverhampton,  election  of  1893, 50 ;  sew- 
age works,  199 ;  free  library,  218. 

Women,  admitted  to  municipal  franchise, 
30;  not  eligible  for  councilors,  34;  in 
parochial  elections,  40;  in  municipal 
elections,  46;  inspe^rs  of  Glasgow 
tenements,  81, 87 ;  lodging-house  for,  in 
Glasgow,  106 ;  in  London  government, 
244  ;  eligible  for  poor-law  boards,  256. 

Working-classes'  Housing  Act  of  1890, 216. 

Working-men,  in  London  County  Coun- 
cil, 247 ;  in  Manchester  reading-rooms, 
162. 

Workmen's  cars  and  fares,  on  Glasgow 
street  railways,  128 ;  on  Manchester 
street  railways,  157. 

Workmen's  suburban  trains,  London, 
293-295,  299,  300. 

Workshop  inspection  in  Glasgow,  83. 

Works,  public,  in  Glasgow,  124-127. 

Young,  John,  manager  of  municipal 
tramways,  130, 131. 


DATE  HOUR 


NAME 


J5 
3118 

-&*- 


JMI  2  0  1949 


001  071  968    o 


